Online reporting and assessing new occupational health risks in SIGNAAL

Abstract

Background: Changes in work and working conditions continuously give rise to new work-related health risks. Without sufficient knowledge of these, opportunities for prevention and intervention may be missed.

Aims: To develop, implement and evaluate an online tool called SIGNAAL for reporting and assessment of new work-related health risks by occupational health physicians and experts in the Netherlands and Belgium.

Methods: Development and implementation of SIGNAAL to allow both easy and sufficient detailed reporting by occupational health physicians and structured and transparent assessment by occupational health experts. A new work-related health risk is defined as a work-related disease due to specific exposure in a specific work setting not described in the literature before.

Results: The online reporting and assessment tool proved to be a feasible means of reporting possible new combinations of health problems and exposures in the work situation. Eleven of the 15 cases reported until October 2014 were fully assessed: one was an entirely new work-related disease, four were known but uncommon work-related diseases, five were known but new in the reported work situation and one was a well-known work-related disease.

Conclusions: An online reporting system used in an occupational health setting can provide insight into new work-related health risks by creating a structured way to gather, report and assess new combinations of health problems and exposure in the workplace.

Keywords: Aetiology; new and emerging risks; online reporting; work-relatedness..