Traditionally, the occupational health and safety investment has been supported on the basis that it is a tool to improve productivity and profit beneath reducing labor injuries and professional diseases. Now the problem is that there is an increasing number of managers who, after decades of investing in occupational health and safety programs, have not seen clearly its financial benefits and today, facing free trade and competitiveness, do not agree with projects demanding big investments without a direct added value upon the real nature of their business. Reliable statistics and other data regarding labor accidents in Colombia and results from a local manufacturing company Have been taken and used to calculate economic impact of these accidents. Results were amazing : the opportunity costs due to 1996 labor accidents in the enterprise was 38% of the occupational health and safety budget of the year and labor accidents in Colombia on the same year could be cost more than 1,5% of GDP.