Topic Centre Research - Work and Health: Design and implementation of an information system for emerging risks and monitorig systems in occupational safety and health

Status:

completed 11/2003

Aims:

The content and accessibility of the information available on the Internet concerning OSH research activities in the network drawn up by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work were to be updated and extended.

Activities/Methods:

Under the overall control of the BG Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BIA), further content and areas of interest were added to the information system, already extended 2002. For the further development of the system a thesaurus in European languages was validated and adopted to existing national thesauri. The concept for information on emerging risks was drawn up and the information already collected on emerging risk areas was published online under the overall control of BIA. This information was supplemented by validated results from expert surveys on physical, mechanical, psychosocial and organizational risks. Conclusions from the study conducted 2002 into monitoring systems in occupational health and safety were also to be reached for future reporting by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work. In the process, valid and transferable parameters were defined and the applicable methods set out in co-operation with the national focal points, after which it will be possible to conduct a joint pilot project.

Results:

New research results in the area of occupational safety and health, especially that of hazardous substances and stress at work, have been integrated into the information system. The validated multilingual thesaurus is an important search tool for users and will facilitate a cooperation of the European information system with existing national facilities. Further information on emerging risks was gathered. The experts' answers to the surveys on emerging physical, mechanical, psychosocial and organisational risks were analysed. A web site featuring the information on emerging risks was developed and will be made available to the public in 2004. Based on the example of the "noise" risk, parameters for a European monitoring system were defined. Existing national and European monitoring systems were analysed according to these parameters. These activities resulted in a methodology which is suitable for transfer to other risk types. This will form the basis of a pilot project which will aim at developing a European monitoring system in 2004.

Publications:

http://osha.europa.eu/research

Further informations:

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