A survey of the exposure of the Belgian employees to dangerous chemicals

Workers encounter a wide variety of substances, physical agents, and working conditions (during the course of their work) at their workplace.In Belgium, occupational exposure data to dangerous chemical products obtained from external and internal services for prevention and protection at work are thought to be underreported and unreliable. At this point in time, we do not know which workers in Belgium are exposed to dangerous chemicals and what the long-term health effects of this exposure will be. Systematic collection and analysis ofoccupational chemical exposure data is essential for preventive policy. We will therefore set up the PROBE(Hazardous chemical Products Register for Occupational use in Belgium) study, to investigate the exposure of workers to dangerous chemical products (type, duration, frequency). A Sentinel Surveillance approach will be implementedto obtain reliable and representative exposure data.Occupational physicians from internal and external services for the prevention and protection at work will be invited to participate. A voluntary, trained, motivated, and representative (gender, sector, etc.)sample of occupational physicians will be asked to collect data on a regularly basis during a period of 5 months. Next to administrative data, we will also collect exposure data and health related data. With this pilotproject, we aim to collect reliable data about the exposure of workers in Belgium to chemicals and prove the usefulness of the Sentinel Surveillance approach

Keywords:OCCUPATIONAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH, EXPOSURE ASSESSMENT, EPIDEMIOLOGY

Disciplines:Public health care, Public health sciences, Public health services