ESTABLISHMENT OF A WORK-RELATED DISEASES SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM IN TAIWAN, REPUBLIC-OF-CHINA

Background. The occurrence of occupational illness and injury has been seriously underestimated in Taiwan, which subsequently contributes to difficulties in performing effective control of occupational hazards and implementing intervention programs for protecting workers. Methods . Based on the successful experience of the nationwide blood lead leve l surveillance program, the Department of Health, the Executive Yuan, Taiwan, Republic of China, has established a work-related diseases sur veillance system. This government-administered system requests practic ing physicians to report the suspected cases suffering from six catego ries of work-related disorders. Results. An occupational illness and i njury surveillance program in Taiwan has been in operation since June of 1995. Conclusion. Background information of work-related diseases o btained from this surveillance system will be useful for providing bet ter management of available resources for occupational medicine, for p reventing hazards, and for enforcing occupational diseases prevention programs. Our experience in establishing this surveillance system will be used in other countries and settings. (C) 1996 Academic Press, Inc .