I think there is significant under reporting, so the statics are probably of little use. Certainly on occasions when I have suggested that someone has a disease that should be reported, there has been a certain "running around like headless chickens" in order to try and justify not reporting.We give advice, management accepts it or not as they see fit.
What will be lost is the "flag up" to the HSE inspectors that a partcular place has an issue and may need support.
There are people collecting data on some conditions , but these are only the cases that get to specialists, a lot of dermatitis is sorted out locally by OH and GP
Since February 1993 the EPIDERM surveillance scheme has collected data on
occupational skin disease from consultant dermatologists in the UK. Reporting by
occupational physicians to the scheme began in May 1994 and was superseded in
January 1996 by the Occupational Physicians Reporting Activity (OPRA). The schemes
currently receive reports on incident cases from 244 dermatologists and 790
occupational physicians
Surveillance of work-related and occupational respiratory disease (SWORD)
The scheme aims to determine the scale and patterns of work-related respiratory disease in the UK and to identify the agents thought to be responsible along with information on industry and occupation. Ongoing since 1988, the scheme has been funded by the Health and Safety Executive with the support of the British Thoracic Society and the Society of Occupational Medicine. Funding to continue data collection for this work runs to the end of 2006.
Approximately 490 respiratory physicians throughout the UK participate in reporting occupational respiratory disease. Twenty one of these are 'core' reporters who report every month; the remainder are sample reporters who are sampled at random and report for one month only each year.
For further details, see: Map showing distribution of SWORD reporters
The types of respiratory diseases reported include:
- Occupational asthma
- Benign and malignant pleural disease
- Mesothelioma
- Lung cancer
- Pneumoconiosis
Call me cynical, but employers are not reallly interested or swayed by the big picture, but how much a particular case is going to cost them in terms of litigation,compensation, absence costs...let alone improving control measures....
Cheers
Diane
