Combating occupational disease: findings and policy implications from a survey of Australian workers’ exposures to disease-causing hazards

Introduction
The prevention of occupational diseases is a main objective of Australian work health and safety authorities; yet it remains a challenge for policy makers to obtain accurate and useful disease data for policy development and implementation. In an effort to overcome this problem Safe Work Australia has adopted the approach of examining the exposure of Australians to known disease-causing hazards. This requires the implementation of a comprehensive national surveillance scheme that identifies workplace hazards and preventative controls and facilitates effective targeting of preventative measures for occupational disease.

Methods
The National Hazard Exposure Worker Surveillance (NHEWS) survey asked 4500 Australian workers about their exposure to nine occupational hazards (noise, vibration, UV radiation, airborne hazards, wet work, biological hazards, chemicals, psychosocial hazards and biomechanical demands) and about the provision of controls for these hazards in their workplaces. The survey also collected detailed demographic and employment information from each respondent, which enabled broad identification of groups of workers with high exposure and low control provision. The survey sample was drawn from across Australia and includes workers from all Australian industries.

Results
An overview of the results of this survey will be provided, including the percentages of workers who reported exposure to each of the nine hazards. Key trends in the exposure data by employment and demographic characteristics of workers will also be discussed.

Discussion
The NHEWS survey findings continue to contribute to work health and safety policy development in Australia. The survey is currently under revision for its next iteration in 2012 and it is likely that it will become an ongoing source of information about workplace hazard exposure in Australia. The survey will also contribute to the evaluation of harmonized work health and safety legislation. Lessons learned about conducting this research and translating research into policy will be discussed.