In 1985, more than one billion workdays were lost to illness, or about 3 percent of the daily workforce. The government expressed concern with the 0.7 percent increase, between 1986-1990, in workdays lost in the USSR as a whole, and 10-19 percent in Moldavia, Byelorussia, and Lithuania. The productively employed sector was further reduced by permanent disability, about 0.5 million in 1990, due to cardiovascular disease and cancer. The Baltics and Slavic Republics had the largest proportion of disabled workers in the Soviet Union, between 50-64 persons per 10,000 employed workers, compared to the national average of 47/10,000 employees. More than 60 percent of deaths were due to cardiovascular disease, accidents, homicides, and suicides; this percentage was three to six times greater among men than among women (Vestnik Statistiki 1991). Deaths due to chronic diseases, accidents, and violence increased between 1985-1990 in the Baltics and Slavic Republics, as did the number of deaths due to infectious and parasitic diseases in the Asian Republics.