Occupational diseases

Occupational diseases (ODs) are posing an ever-increasing challenge to workers' compensation systems.

Handling ODs has always been complex, and new conditions are changing the face of these diseases, making them even more difficult to manage:

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  Flexibility in the job market, changes in the work environment, and the way in which work is organised lead to new workplace hazards (teleworking, technological progress, etc.)
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  The rising number of workers moving from country to country, from one company to another, and within different economic activities means that — in addition to the overlap and convergence of several occupational hazards — it is becoming more difficult to track the work-related history of an employee. This results in problems diagnosing ODs and allocating responsibility when a diagnosis is confirmed.
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  Improvements in occupational health and safety measures allow for better control of traditional occupational hazards, but they also lead to new scenarios where "non-traditional" occupational hazards might assume increased importance (e.g. psychological occupational hazards) and where new occupational diseases can arise.
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  Advances in medical knowledge and technology help bring about greater life expectancy, among other things. However, the fact that people are living longer also means there is a higher risk of chronic diseases, such as ODs, developing.

Need to review occupational diseases

In addition, current trends in ODs make more evident the need to review how ODs are insured and to discuss whether the current mechanisms are appropriate for dealing with changes we are now experiencing.

A recent study by an EU organisation (Eurogip, 2002) indicates that the main ODs giving rise to claims are:

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  Musculoskeletal complaints and osteoarticular affections
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  Hearing loss
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  Asbestos-related diseases
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  Skin diseases (especially allergies)

Stress is also increasingly included in discussions of working conditions and ODs. The Third European Survey on Working Conditions 2000 found back pain to be the first important occupational risk related to health problems and stress to be the second.

Although OD statistics are not standardised, and the method of defining, codifying and recording them differs from country to country, the above findings on ODs can be confirmed by what is seen in numerous countries.