Seminar reports

The aim of the seminar “Occupational biological risks: Facing up to the challenges”, organised by EU-OSHA in Brussels on 5-6 June 2007, was to consolidate the results of its expert forecast on emerging biological risks with policy makers, social partners, and high-level representatives from the occupational safety and health community as well as from the public health and environment protection disciplines. Renowned experts were invited to present the current knowledge and challenges on the key issues identified in the forecast: occupational safety and health risks linked to pandemics, endotoxins and poor-indoor air quality, and the challenges associated with assessing biological risks in the workplace, setting occupational exposure limit values and recognising work-related origin of diseases caused by biological agents. The seminar aimed to stimulate debate about the needs for research and actions. All the presentations and conclusions are available in this online summary.