The WHO Meeting of Collaborating Centres in Occupational Health summarised the importance of this topic as follows:

Reliable information is sought about the status of occupational health and safety in the countries. This information can be used to develop further the content of occupational health and safety programmes in the countries. It can also to a certain extent be used to benchmark and guide the developments at the international level. WHO/HQ efforts for the calculation of the global burden of occupational injuries and diseases were welcomed, and efforts for the further development of the methodology were encouraged.

It was recommended to continue with the improvements of collection of data of both national and local occupational health and safety indicators. The country occupational health and safety profiles will be one of the main tasks on the work plan for the next few years. All Collaborating Centres were encouraged to take part in this effort.”

A task force of WHO collaborating centres has been established to work on country profiles and indicators on occupational health and safety. The country profiles will be used for describing the activities, prioritizing activities at the national level, comparing the comparable systems, providing early signals for problems emerging in the work life, and giving evidence of achievements. Both the old exposures and new challenges of rapidly changing work life are to be addressed. The WHO/EURO and the ILO have asked the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health to provide a background document for establishing country profiles and indicators in occupational health and safety. At present, some 35 institutions in Europe, Asia and Africa are in the process of preparing country profiles.

Registration and Data Systems

Analysis of reliable data and establishment of trends in occupational health, as well as recognition of priorities at the national and local levels are of utmost importance both for decision-making on policies and for occupational health practices.

There should be at least one well-developed focal point with sufficient library re-sources and modern data systems for the country. This focal point needs to be linked with international information and data networks. Progressive development of national networks is currently needed to provide technically feasible and cost-effective solutions.

Occupational Health and Safety Indicators

Data on the demography of the working populations, on economic activities and enterprises, on occupational diseases and injuries, and on the most central exposures and outcomes, such as cancer are of vital importance for carrying out occu-pational health activities. These data can also be used for analysing trends and set-ting priorities for prevention and control, and for carrying out epidemiological and other types of research. In most countries, registers of data on occupational health and safety do not cover the whole working population and are not accurate enough for practical purposes. The development of occupational and environmental data registers for each country has been recommended among others by the Second European Conference on Health and Environment and by several working groups of WHO.

Sentinel Observations - a basis for further research

Much progress in the prevention of occupational health hazards has been made, thanks to the identification of adverse health effects by epidemiological research. It has usually taken a long time before sufficient numbers of cases have been noted and properly analysed. Because of this, control actions have often been made post hoc, particularly in instances where the health outcome has been uncertain or unknown. New observations are occasionally made on occupational hazards, injuries and diseases that have not been reported before or that have not been known to be work-related. Preventive actions are often delayed due to the uncertainty of the etiology of the problem. Collection of reports of new cases may help in quicker recognition of problems and in the planning and organization of multicentre studies or studies using pooled data.

Information Services and Networks

Occupational health practice, training, research and communication are critically dependent on an effective supply of scientific and practical information and the availability of relevant information. Access to databases and information services are needed for each country and for each occupational health team. CD-ROM technology is able to provide relevant international data banks to individual experts at a reasonable cost. Internet can be utilized as widely as possible because of its easy access where it is available. Several information networks also serve experts in spe-cific fields such as toxicology, medicine, chemistry and technology. Access to in-formation systems for experts in each country should be taken as an objective of the national occupational health programme. Information networks can also be developed on a sub-regional or regional basis.

Provision of CD-ROM information services or services through Internet to the key institutions in each Member State is a realistic objective. This could be assisted through, for example, the Network of the WHO Collaborating Centres in Occupational Health and, where appropriate, in collaboration with the ILO International Safety and Health Information Centre (CIS), IPCS and the International Register of Potentially Toxic Chemicals (IRPTC).

Increasing General Awareness

Awareness of the needs and objectives of occupational health among the public at large, decision-makers, politicians, employers and workers is of utmost importance for getting the necessary political decisions made and practical actions taken. Several countries have established effective information activities for public information by using journals, other written information and electronic communication media.