Tracing New Occupational Diseases, an Introduction

Continuous changes in work and in working conditions give rise to new occupational health risks and possibly to new occupational diseases. Social partners and governments have a need for timely and specific knowledge about new risks. Where there is insufficient knowledge of these risks, opportunities for intervention and prevention are missed. Although a great deal of effort goes into risk assessment, in order to manage the risks brought on by new technologies, signalling new and undesirable side-effects of work on health is a complementary approach. The approach of occupational health and safety vigilance is comparable with analyzing and learning from occupational accidents and identification of the adverse effects of drugs: although drugs have undergone extensive testing for safety in the research phase, they may produce unexpected and sometimes serious adverse health effects after introduction into the market. In society, the need to identify new health risks more quickly and more effectively has grown rapidly over the past decade. The continuous need to identify new risks is a process that involves uncertainty, and on in which a balance must be found between a dynamic approach and a careful approach. The challenge is to prevent any occupational damage to health without creating unnecessary concern. There is a growing impact of chronic work-related health problems, such as musculoskeletal disorders, psycho-social risks, and stress at work. There are fears that nanotechnology risks a repeat of the asbestos tragedy. Reproductive capacity can be endangered by