GENEVA (ILO News) – A tripartite meeting of experts on occupational diseases held at the International Labour Office (ILO) has adopted a new list of occupational diseases designed to assist countries in the prevention, recording, notification and, if applicable, compensation of illnesses caused by work.

The panel of experts examined a proposed list of occupational diseases developed through tripartite consultations, on the basis of increased recognition of occupational diseases at the national and international levels, new and emerging risk factors and the improvement of diagnostic techniques.

“The number of physical, chemical, biological and psychosocial factors affecting workers’ health is constantly on the rise, as well as the number of occupational diseases included in national occupational safety and health programmes and compensation schemes. It is therefore necessary to review the list of occupational diseases regularly and to add those newly identified as occupational in order to maximize the effectiveness of preventive strategies and appropriate compensation schemes. This meeting has been a step in the right direction,” said Sameera Al-Tawaijri, head of the ILO’s Programme on Safety and Health at Work and the Environment (Safework)

The revised list includes a range of internationally recognized occupational diseases, from illnesses caused by chemical, physical and biological agents to respiratory, skin and musculoskeletal disorders and occupational cancer. It also includes a section on mental and behavioural disorders. Once it is approved by the ILO Governing Body at its March 2010 Session, the new list will replace the one in the Annex to the Recommendation concerning the List of Occupational Diseases and the Recording and Notification of Occupational Accidents and Diseases, 2002, (No. 194).

Participants at the meeting followed a set of general criteria agreed by the tripartite constituents to decide what specific diseases to include in the updated list: that there is a causal relationship with a specific agent, exposure or work process; that they occur in connection with the work environment and/or in specific occupations; that they occur among the groups of persons concerned with a frequency which exceeds the average incidence within the rest of the population; and that there is scientific evidence of a clearly defined pattern of disease following exposure and plausibility of cause.

The original List of Occupational Diseases Recommendation (no.194) was adopted at the 90th Session of the International Labour Conference in 2002. A first meeting of experts to revise the list took place in 2005.

For more information, please contact the ILO Department of Communication and Public Information at +4122/799-7912 or communication@ilo.org