This OSHwiki article provides information on the hazards, uses, exposures and risks from isocyanates and outlines prevention strategies at the workplace.

The workshop report includes a brief introduction about the challenges of assessing combined exposures in general. It states the key terminology of combined chemical exposure and states the framework for risk assessment of chemicals combined exposure. The appendices contain the presentation abstracts that introduce different approaches to assessing combined exposures.

Maintenance is a generic term for a variety of tasks in different sectors and all kinds of working environments. This report aims to provide an overview of maintenance workers in Europe with regard to their exposure to hazards and the main risks, health problems and types of accident. It also gives some indication as to appropriate prevention measures. Around 6% of workers are involved in maintenance activities on a daily basis. Because they carry out a wide range of activities, these workers are exposed to many and varied hazards at work. There are physical hazards (e.g.

The harmful effects of smoking tobacco are well documented, for both smokers themselves and those passively exposed to cigarette smoke (environmental tobacco smoke, also called second-hand smoke). This e-fact is designed to highlight the wide-ranging benefits of smoking cessation for both individual workers and employers. It also provides suggestions on how employers can support their employees in making this change.

The OSHwiki provides basic information on what irritants are, what health effects they may cause upon exposure to skin, eyes or the respiratory tract and what prevention options there are to protect workers. Prevention should include combinations of measures at source, technical and organisational measures, personal protection and hygiene, and early warnings.

This report describes the typical risks to cleaning workers, including to biological and chemical agents, and provides information on several initiatives in the EU countries to improve worker’ health and safety.

This publication provides information on the workplace risks and related health outcomes of young workers across the EU. It is based on a literature review as well as case studies on prevention.

This report shows that emergency workers have a high risk of suffering fatal accidents, injuries and occupational diseases. Past disasters demonstrate that both communities and companies are often not fully prepared for major accidents and catastrophes. Better protection for emergency service workers against occupational hazards should be given high priority, as current environmental, economic and political developments suggest that there will be an increase in the severity and frequency of disasters in the future.

The case study describes how a German Housing Association developed a system to ensure that drinking-water in their real estates is not contaminated with legionella.

Prevention of legionella in drinking water supply systems has become an increasingly important issue for building and real-estate companies, as well as for hotels, hospitals and nursing homes. Relatively large piping systems with large boilers are at high risk of contamination by legionellae or other microorganisms.

The first hospital-acquired case of legionnaires' disease in Poland was detected in the ophthalmology ward of a large hospital. Analysis of medical files revealed previous suspected cases of legionnaires' disease in the ophthalmology ward. Biological samples confirmed legionnaires’ disease. The source of the bacteria proved to be the old hot water system. Chemical and heat-shock treatment of the pipelines diminished the bacterial load but further technical interventions were necessary to eliminate all bacteria.