Surveillance of occupational and work-related diseases between 1993 and 1996 in an engineering company

There are established reporting schemes for some occupational and work-rela ted illnesses but these schemes may underestimate the true incidence of suc h diseases. Not all cases may be referred to a participating physician and access to adequate diagnostic facilities are not always available. Collecti ng data directly from occupational health departments may overcome some pro blems related to under-reporting as they have good access to the entire wor king population within their company. The aim of this paper is to report th e results from such a reporting scheme operated by a large multi-national e ngineering company during the period 1993-96. All UK sites of Lucas Industr ies (later LucasVarity) participated. A report form was completed by the oc cupational health department of each participating site each month. The rep ort form gave abbreviated details of each case of occupational and work-rel ated disease occurring at that site during the previous month. Forms were p osted to a central office where the data was collated and analyzed. The inc idence of respiratory diseases was broadly similar or slightly higher to th at reported from other schemes. Musculoskeletal diseases were by far the mo st common category of disease reported. During a four year period of report ing the incidence of occupational and work-related diseases decreased overa ll by approximately 75%. As the reported incidence of respiratory disease w as comparable with or slightly higher than that from other schemes, it appe ars that reporting schemes such as this can provide useful and accurate dat a. Musculoskeletal diseases are the most common type of disease attributed to work and should probably receive greater attention. The decrease in inci dence seen in LucasVarity over time may reflect increased emphasis given to health and safety issues within the company during the reporting period.