What purpose should OSH-monitoring serve ? It is to support knowledge-based administrative decisions. (on legislation, law enforcement, expenditure, research... ) OSH-monitoring data might be adequate and sufficient irrelevant, obscure misleading

Question (asked by a desicion maker) Is it necessary to re-design the workplace of J. Bull because he is likely to develop a work-related lung disease soon ? Answer (delivered by OSH-monitoring) a) OSH-supervisors are very busy in that region. b) John hates waking up early and going to work. c) John is heavily exposed to a hazardous substance.

health monitoringrisk monitoring level of detail in monitoring (person or population, workplace or industry) level of depth in analysis (summary description or multivariate analysis)

risk monitoring measuring exposures, regularly or by survey (physical, chemical, psychological exposures) registering hazardous technologies (substances in use, X-ray devices, nuclear systems) reporting the level of technical standardization reporting the level of legislation and law enforcement (surveillance personell, legal actions taken)

health monitoring using professional insurance data (work accidents and occupational diseases, compensations) using health insurance data (absenteeism) analysing population register data (mortality, cancer, primary care, hospital admissions) collecting health surveillance data (occational surveys, local studies)

principles of collecting and processing personal data in Germany self-determination general principle: person grants or denies consent predetermination principle for administrative exploitation: purpose of data collection = purpose of data use

data sources in Germany (1) summary reports of the professional insurance companies (numbers and costs of work accidents and occupational diseases) analysis report of a 10%-sample of commuting and work accidents (case facts, gender, company size, industry) summary report of occupational diseases (diagnosis, gender, industry, geographical region)

data sources in Germany (2) early retirement statistics (cause of retirement, costs) health insurance report on absenteeism (diagnosis) chemical exposure database (non-random sample) OSH-authorities report (advisory measures, legal actions taken, surveillance personell on duty)