Factsheet 40 - Skin sensitisers

Biological agents and pandemics: review of the literature and national policies

The biological risks related to pandemics and epidemics can affect the health of many workers, particularly in specific occupations such as workers in health care, transport services or animal breeding, and workers who contribute to contingency measures when outbreaks occur. This working paper describes the main biological risks related to pandemics and major disease outbreaks, and presents policies and practices in EU Member States in relation to how occupational safety and health (OSH) is included in the assessment, recognition, recording and prevention of major disease outbreaks and pandemics. It also contains some case studies to highlight specific occupations and biological agents, and explain how OSH policies and practices are integrated.

The occupational safety and health of cleaning workers

This report provides an overview of the most important issues related to occupational safety and health (OSH) for cleaning workers in terms of working conditions, risks and prevalence of exposures and health outcomes, and identifies information gaps and challenges. Cleaning includes a broad range of activities performed in different work environments across all sectors. The risks to which cleaners are exposed therefore depend on the tasks they perform and the premises they work in. As most of the cleaning work is performed as contract cleaning, employers sometimes face difficulties in controlling the OSH conditions in the "host companies" where their staff work. Accessing information on occupational accidents and diseases remains challenging as cleaning workers are spread over different sectors and it is therefore difficult to put monitoring systems in place. In addition, a significant part of the cleaning workforce is undeclared, especially in private households, which also complicates data collection. Studies on work-related diseases indicate that MSDs, respiratory diseases, including asthma, skin diseases and mental ill health are the most common work-related health effects found in cleaners, and suggest a higher prevalence of health problems in cleaning workers than in other sectors.

Exploratory survey of Occupational Exposure Limits (OELs) for Carcinogens, Mutagens and Reprotoxic substances (CMRs) at EU Member States level

This report is based on a one-off survey carried out late 2007-early 2008 among EU-OSHA's network partners at the request of the European Commission. Rather than presenting an in-depth study of the systems in place for setting occupational exposure limits (OELs) for carcinogenic, mutagenic and reprotoxic substances, this report provides a general overview of the situation in 21 Member States. In recent years, all Member States have made available their OEL lists on the internet, some in English, and are capitalising on each others' resources. Readers are advised to bear in mind the introductory notes when extracting information from the extensive tables provided in the report.