In this number

Commission Internationale dela Santé au Travail – CIST

NEWSLETTERInternational Commission onOccupational Health – ICOH

Volume 7, Number 1 June 2009

Message from the PresidentMessage from thePresident 1

From the Editor 3

ICOH2009in Cape Town 4

Meeting of the ScientificCommittee Chairs andSecretaries 6

Meeting of the NationalSecretaries 6

Forthcoming ICOHCongresses 7

The new Officers andnew Board 8

Assignments of the Offic-ers and Board Membersof ICOH (2009-2012) 9

Honour to serve ICOH –Privilege to promoteglobal occupationalhealthJorma Rantanen 11

A proposed ICOHdocument on BiologicalMonitoring 16

New Members 17

Résumé en français 18

Dear ICOH Colleagues,

The major progress reported at ICOH2009, our triennial congress held in CapeTown, was greatly encouraging. Progresswas seen in prevention strategies re-sponding to diversifying workplace needs,risk assessment methods, and variousprogrammes for bridging gaps.

I am very grateful to all the ICOHmembers for showing their confidencein ICOH’s work. This confidence wasclear in the activities reported at the con-gress and the elections held this year. Thenew Board members and the Officerswho met in Cape Town agreed to furtherdevelop ICOH activities and its networktowards our common aim of enhancingoccupational health research and prac-tice worldwide. In order to achieve this,we need to further reinforce the strengthswe have and improve our joint action.

What are our strengths?

We agree that the strengths of ICOH arerepresented by our unified effort to up-grade occupational health practices intoday’s increasingly diversifying world ofwork and by our close partnership withinternational allies and networks. Onenotable strength of ICOH is its net-worked research into proactive assess-ment and control of workplace risks.This strength is based on our experienceas key actors close to stakeholders inworkers’ health issues.

Another important strength is in-dicated by our core roles in linking occu-pational health and development. We of-fer practical tools for improving work-ing conditions and environment in un-derserved sectors, particularly in indus-

trially developing countries. The two pil-lars of ICOH, the Scientific Committeesand the National Secretaries, play vitalroles in combining our efforts in all theseaspects.

In Cape Town, progress was thusseen in assessing and controlling muscu-loskeletal disorders, respiratory diseas-es, psychosocial factors, and emergingrisks such as neurotoxic, allergic, repro-ductive or infectious hazards. Particularattention was then drawn to proactivetoolkits, such as health promotion mod-els, control banding and similar tools forprimary prevention, participatory train-ing packages and workplace surveillancesystems. The continued emphasis on theethics of occupational health profession-als provides a strong basis for our con-tributions.

Progress was also seen in protect-ing the health of workers in small enter-prises, agriculture, informal economies

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ICOH NewsletterPublished by theInternational Commission onOccupational Health

Editorial BoardSergio Iavicoli,seriav@iol.it

Seong-Kyu Kangskk@kosha.net

Norito Kawakaminorito@m.u-tokyo.ac.jp

Suvi Lehtinensuvi.lehtinen@ttl.fi

Jorge Moralesmorales.ja@pg.com

Louis PatryLPatry@santepub-mtl.qc.ca

Mary Rossbarrym@mweb.co.za

Claudio Taboadelactaboadela@fibertel.com.ar

Editor for Issue 1/2009Suvi Lehtinen

LayoutTuula Solasaari-Pekki

The electronic version of the ICOHNewsletter on the Internet can be ac-cessed at the following address:www.icohweb.org/newsletter

The responsibility for opinions ex-pressed in signed articles, studies andother contributions rests solely withtheir authors, and publication does notconstitute an endorsement by the Inter-national Commission on OccupationalHealth of the opinions expressed inthem.

© International Commission onOccupational Health, 2009

ISSN 1459-6792 (Printed publication)

ISSN 1795-0260 (On-line publication)

NEWSLETTERVolume 7, Number 1

June 2009

International Commission on Occupa-tional Health – ICOH

Commission Internationale de laSanté au Travail – CIST

and a large variety of workplaces in in-dustrially developing countries. ICOH’sfinancial support, provided to about 100participants from these countries, helpeddiscuss urgent issues and action-orientedmethods in serving the underserved work-places.

Our common plans of action

At the two ICOH General Assemblies heldin Cape Town, we mutually felt the strongneed of taking concrete steps to executeour work plans for 2009–2012. Our com-mon plans of action may include (a) ad-vancing proactive risk assessment andcontrol at work, (b) extending occupa-tional health services to all workers in allcountries, (c) developing action-orientedtoolkits for field use, and (d) reinforcingthe ICOH network for worldwide action.

In all these domains, we need todevelop action-oriented procedures forworkplace risk assessment and controlespecially through the Scientific Commit-tees. Workable procedures are needed toaddress both traditional and emerginghealth risks at work. It is gratifying thatthe guidelines, action models and toolkitsbeing developed by the Scientific Com-mittees and regional and national groupsare being put to wide use at different worksettings.

New approaches including BasicOccupational Health Services and healthyworkplace initiatives are presenting newparadigms in workers’ health in variousdifficult conditions, with the active sup-port of the ILO and WHO. In many ses-sions in Cape Town, discussion centeredaround effective measures to addressboth new and traditional issues in thistime of global economic crisis.

What do we need to improve?

One important lesson we have learnedthrough discussion of these advances isthe need to present practical managementgoals and procedures that are workablein varied workplace situations. A specialeffort is needed to develop action-orient-ed guidelines and toolkits for health sur-veys and primary prevention measures.

We need to improve our speed ofproducing practical outputs, as the dis-cussion at the Cape Town Congress andat the subsequent Board meeting revealed.Examples are ready-to-use types of guide-lines, toolkits and model systems. We cer-tainly need to increase the visibility ofICOH activities in our health and safety

fields. More concerted action is also need-ed to increase our membership, particu-larly of young members. In other words,we need to make specific efforts to pro-duce outputs, enhance visibility and in-crease membership. In fact, we have madesome gains in these aspects in recent years,but we need to make more concerted ef-forts in overcoming these constraints.

We are at the second triennium fol-lowing the Centennial event in Milan. Thisgives us a unique opportunity to solidifyour network-based strengths and pro-duce outputs that have real impacts. Thisrequires not only our concerted effort, butalso specific plans with clearly definedgoals in each area of action we are en-gaged in.

Communication and meetings

Let us communicate through the Scien-tific Committees, working groups andproject teams and through National Sec-retaries about work plans and gainedachievements. For this purpose, informa-tion exchange through the newly devel-oped ICOH website will be very useful.

The meetings of Scientific Commit-tees, regional and national conferences,meetings of ICOH members and varioustraining programmes provide valuablemeans of ascertaining the progress of ourwork plans. Joint preparation of ICOH2012 in Monterrey and ICOH 2015 inSeoul will give us further opportunitiesto advance ICOH work. Let us thereforestrengthen communication reporting onprogress in these activities and meetings,also through the ICOH website.

Let me wish all our members afruitful triennium and the best success inour joint plans for occupational healthfor all.

Kazutaka KogiPresident of ICOH

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From the Editor

Cape Town 2009 Congress

With the successful ICOH2009 Congress in Cape Town now behind us, we would liketo thank the Local Organizers of ICOH2009 for their hard work for the success of theCongress. The Congress gathered a total of 1400 experts from 81 countries

In her vote of thanks in the Closing Session of the Congress, Dr. Edith Clarkefrom Ghana said that the Congress had offered an excellent forum for learning, ex-change of information and networking. This was indicated by the fact that in spite ofthe early mornings (Keynote Lectures started at 8.00 o’clock in the morning), the hallwas crowded.

Next issue

You have had to wait for this issue of the ICOH Newsletter slightly longer than usual.This is due to the fact that we are now in the middle of the transfer process.

The next issue of the ICOH Newsletter will be edited and published by the newEditor, Professor Seong-Kyu Kang from KOSHA, Korea. It is preliminarily scheduledto come out at the end of August 2009. The deadline for materials is 10 July 2009. Pleasesend your contributions to skk@kosha.net.

Hard copy or a print from the ICOH website version of theNewsletter?

The ICOH Newsletter is, after 6 years of publishing, now well established. After theIguassu Congress, it was a conscious decision of the ICOH leadership to print the hardcopy to all members in good standing and send it by mail to every member’s desk. Inspring 2003, I asked all members whether they preferred the hard copy to the electronicversion on the ICOH website. Six members sent an e-mail informing that the electronicversion is sufficient. Now the time has come to ask all of us again whether a print of theelectronic version of the ICOH Newsletter would be sufficient, especially for us livingand working in industrialized countries with relatively good Internet access. This wouldsave a great deal of money that could be utilized for other ICOH activities. Dr. Seong-Kyu Kang will communicate with you on this issue.

Changes of addresses

To ensure that you receive the Newsletters in time, please check that you have paid yourmembership fee and informed the ICOH Secretariat (carlo.petyx@ispesl.it orpierluca.dionisi@ispesl.it) of possible changes to your address.

Once more, thank you!

I am happy to pass on the Newsletter to the next Editor’s skillful hands. At the sametime, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your support andconfidence! I look forward to working with you all in another context.

Suvi LehtinenEditor for issue 1/2009

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The 29th ICOH International Congress,ICOH2009, was successfully hosted on22-27 March 2009 in Cape Town, SouthAfrica, for the first time ever in Sub-Sa-haran Africa. A total of about 1400 ex-perts from 81 countries attended the mostsuccessful Congress.

About 100 participants from 40 de-veloping and transitory countries receivedfinancial support enabling them to attend.

The 1292 presentations of theICOH2009 Congress were distributedevenly: 406 oral presentations in specialsessions, 443 oral presentation in topicsessions, and 443 posters. In addition, onevery day of the Congress, 3 keynote lec-tures started the day programme at 8.00o’clock.

ICOH gave its first Overall Student

Presentation Award, which went to Ntom-bizodwa Ndlovu of South Africa for herpresentation “Damaged Goods Return toSender: A Review of the Records of Mi-grant Gold Miners in South Africa: 1904-1913”. Award for Best Student Posterwent to Shumani Phaswana on “AcuteRespiratory and Associated Symptomsamong Primary School Children in Ru-ral Kwazulu-Natal”. The award for BestStudent Presentation Awent to BraimohBello on the presentation “Time to Preg-nancy and Occupation: A South AfricanStudy”.

Opening Ceremonies

The Congress was opened on Sunday af-ternoon, 22 March 2009. In addition to

the welcoming addresses of ICOH Presi-dent, Professor Jorma Rantanen andICOH2009 Congress President, Profes-sor Daan Kocks, the participants were bidwelcome also by Dr. Maria Neira of WHOand Dr. Sameera Al-Tuwaijri of ILOthrough video presentations. Both Inter-national Organizatiosn emphasized theimportance of occupational health andsafety in meeting the Millennium Devel-opment Goals and provided their strongsupport for collaboration with ICOH infurther development of working condi-tions and workers’ health throughoutthe world. Dr. Lindiwe Ndelu of the Min-istry of Health of South Africa broughtthe greetings of the Government ofSouth Africa.

In addition, the sister organiza-tions of ICOH – Professor David Caple,President of the International Ergonom-ics Association, IEA, Mr. Tom Grumbles,President of the International Occupa-tional Hygiene Association, IOHA, andMr. Hans-Horst Konkolewsky, SecretaryGeneral of the International Social Secu-rity Association, ISSA, Geneva - as well asalso Dr. Jukka Takala, Director of the Eu-ropean Agency on Safety and Health atWork – all brought their greetings to theCongress participants.

The Opening Keynote lecture wasmade by Sir Michael Marmot. It discussedin depth the social inequities in the glo-balizing world of work. He challenged allof us to work for better occupationalhealth for all, and fighting against themisery caused by inequities in health.

The abstracts of all presentationsof ICOH2009 will be available on ICOHwebsite in due course

ICOH2009 inCape Town

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Works of Dr. BernardinoRamazzini in English

Professor Sergio Iavicoli, Professor An-tonio Bergamashi and Professor PaulBlanck introduced the first English edi-tion of the collection of complete worksof Bernardino Ramazzini. The 2-volumebook was distributed to all participantsof the ICOH2009 Congress.

Good participation fromdeveloping countries andcountries in transition

ICOH Congresses have traditionally fa-cilitated the participation of experts fromdeveloping countries and countries in tran-sition. In April 2008, after the Board meet-ing held in Hamburg, ICOH Presidentestablished a working group on fund rais-ing with the aim to ensure that as manyas possible experts from developing coun-tries can attend with partial financial sup-port provided by ICOH.

The following Organizations sup-ported the participation of members fromdeveloping and transitory countries inthe ICOH2009 Congress:· Arbor Occupational Medicine,

HealthSpan International, USA· Consorzio ISPESL - Clinica Del Lav-

oro, Italy· Executive Committee of the

ICOH2009 Congress· Finnish Association of Occupational

Health Nurses, Finland· Finnish Association of Occupational

Health Physicians, Finland· Finnish Institute of Occupational

Health, Finland

· Institute for Science of Labour, Japan· Liberty Mutual Research Institute for

Safety, USA· Prevent Sweden· US National Institute for Occupation-

al Safety and Health, NIOSH/TheUniversity of North Carolina at Chap-el Hill, USA.

ICOH is most grateful for this sup-port, which enabled the participation ofmembers who otherwise would not havebeen able to attend. The support contrib-uted substantially to the development ofoccupational health expertise in the re-spective countries of the participants.

A total of 75 experts were partiallysupported. Their distribution among thecontinents was as follows:– Africa 19– Asia 24– Latin America and

the Caribbean 17– Transitory countries 15

In addition, the Organizers ofICOH2009 allocated financial support to23 experts, mostly from Southern AfricaRegion.

Special Sessions for Africa,Asia and Latin America andthe Caribbean

Several special sessions were organized forvarious geographical areas. In addition,two-part session was arranged to discussthe occupational health: our commongoal in the global village.

SL

6

Meeting of the National Secretaries

Meeting of the Scientific CommitteeChairs and Secretaries

On Saturday, before the Opening of ICOH2009, a joint meeting of ICOH Offic-ers and Chairs and Secretaries of the Scientific Committees was organized todiscuss the further development of collaboration among the Scientific Commit-tees.

The Meeting of National Secretaries onThursday, 26 March 2009, gathered a total of26 participants. The reports on activities ofthe previous term were discussed. The roleof information and communication was em-phasized, and strengthening the networkingwas deemed highly important.

ICOH has currently a total of 58 Na-tional Secretaries whose tasks are to coordi-nate, develop activities and recruit new mem-bers in their countries. The reports of theNational Secretaries are available on the ICOHwebsite. A great deal of work has been done,and various outputs and impacts been accom-plished during the previous term. From there,it is good to continue the work in the nextthree years!

SL

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Forthcoming ICOH Congresses

ICOH2012

ICOH2012 will be held in Monterrey, Mexicoon 18–23 March 2012. The theme of the Con-gress is Occupational Health for All: From Re-search to Practice. During the First BoardMeeting on 21 March 2009, a contract wassigned between ICOH and the Local Organiz-ers defining the collaboration between the dif-ferent actors.

The website of ICOH2012 is under construc-tion.

ICOH2015

The ICOH members voted for Seoul, Koreaas the location for the ICOH2015 Congress.

Dr. Jorge Morales and Professor Jorma Rantanen signed thecontract concerning the organization of ICOH2012.

The banner of the ICOH International Congress was conveyed to theOrganizers of ICOH2012 in Monterrey, Mexico.

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The new Officers and new Board

The second General Assembly convened immediately after the Closing Ceremonies ofthe ICOH2009 Congress. The new President, Dr. Kazutaka Kogi, received the club ofICOH President from outgoing President, Professor Jorma Rantanen.

The newly-elected Officers and Board (see back page) had their first meetingon Saturday, 28 March 2009. The agenda dealt with the work plan for the next threeyears presented by the new President. In addition, a proposal for the division of workamong the Officers, Board members and the various Committees, Task Groups, andWorking Groups. The completed list of assignments is described below.

Suvi Lehtinen

9

Committees/TGs

Ethics and TransparencyCommittee

Finance Committee

Scientific Advisory Committee

TG on Constitution, Bye-Lawsand Guidelines

TG on Information

TG on Membership

TG on Restructuring andOccupational Health

Network on InternationalCommunication and Informa-tion Technology

Members

Peter Westerholm (Chair)Giovanni CostaMichel GuilleminJohn HarrisonJohn Howard

Frank van Dijk (Chair)John HarrisonSergio IavicoliSeong Kyu Kang

Harri Vainio (Chair)Bonnie Rogers (Co-chair)Marilyn FingerhutSeong Kyu KangNorito KawakamiJorge MoralesAntonio Mutti

Kazutaka Kogi (Chair)Sergio IavicoliSuvi LehtinenJorma RantanenBonnie Rogers

Suvi Lehtinen (Chair)Seong Kyu Kang (Editor inChief of the Newsletter)Sergio Iavicoli (Editor in Chiefof ICOHweb)Norito KawakamiJorge MoralesLouis PatryMary RossClaudio Taboadela

Sergio Iavicoli (Chair)Suvi LehtinenTimo LeinoMary RossClaudio TaboadelaSheng Wang

Thomas Kieselbach (Chair)Giovanni CostaJohn HarrisonJorma RantanenClaudio TaboadelaFrank van Dijk

Max Lum (Chair)

WGs/Liaison

WG on Occupational Infec-tious Agents

WG on ProfessionalCurricula

WG on Young Workers andChild Labour

Liaison: ILO

Liaison: WHO(including IARC)Liaison: IEA (Ergonomics)Liaison: IOHALiaison: CollegiumRamazzini (CR)Liaison: ISSA

Liaison: ICNLiaison: WONCALiaison: WWCS

Liaison: IEA(Epidemiology)Liaison: ICNIRP

Members

Mary Ross (Chair)Kari Reijula (secretary)Mario BoncianiJose Carlos CarneiroRuddy FacciVeronica HerreraRobert OrfordCristina PantanoStefano PorruClaudio TaboadelaKen TakahashiToru YoshikawaKoji Wada

Frank van Dijk (Chair)Giovanni CostaJohn HarrisonNorito KawakamiSuvi LehtinenTimo LeinoAntonio MuttiBonnie Rogers

Marilyn Fingerhut (Chair)Susan Gunn (Co-chair)Tsuyoshi KawakamiClaudio TaboadelaSheng Wang

Kazutaka Kogi(Substitute: Sergio Iavicoli)Marilyn Fingerhut(Substitute: Sergio Iavicoli)Kazutaka KogiMichel GuilleminJorma Rantanen

Jorma Rantanen (ISSAScientific Section Member)Bonnie RogersFrank van DijkBruno Piccoli (on behalf of SCon Work and Vision)Ken Takahashi

Maila Hietanen (on behalf ofSC on Radiation and Work)

A. Committees and Task Groups B. Working Groups and Liaison

Assignments of the Officers and Board Membersof ICOH (2009-2012)

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C. Tasks of Committees, Task Groups, Working Groups, Network and Liaison personsEach Committee, Task Group, Working Group or Network is expected to:

a) Present a Work Plan for the tenure 2009-2012 to Secretary Generalb) Report on their activities to the Mid-term Board meeting and the Board 2012.

Committees/TGs/WGs

Ethics and TransparencyCommittee

Finance Committee

Scientific AdvisoryCommittee

TG on Constitution, Bye-Lawsand Guidelines

TG on Information

TG on Membership

TG on Restructuring andOccupational Health

Network on InternationalCommunication andInformation Technology forOccupational Safety andHealthWG on Occupational Infec-tious Agents

WG on ProfessionalCurricula

WG on Young workers andChild Labour

Liaison: ILO, WHO, IEA(Ergonomics), IOHA, CR,ICN, WONCA, WWCS, IEA(Epidemiology), ISSA, ICNIRP

Tasks

1) Continue the activities defined by Bye-Law 12, 2) Examine the guidelines for ethics, research andpractices and make recommendations on necessary changes, 3) Completing guidelines with necessarynew elements (actions in the cases of misconduct), 4) Examine and advise the Officers and the Board onissues of ethics and transparency1) Continue the activities defined by Bye-Law 12, 2) Make the ad-hoc decisions needed for financialactions on request by the Secretary General, 3) Report on the implementation and impact of newmembership fee system on the number of members and on the economy of ICOH, 4) Investigate theprocedure to simplify membership due payments5) Investigate the possibility to find new resources1) Advise the Officers and the Board about ICOH actions for promoting scientific research in occupationalhealth fields, 2) Advise the Officers and the Board about ICOH actions that may enhance and supportscientific collaboration with international bodies, MOU partners and other scientific institutions, 3)Advise the Vice-President in charge of SCs about ways ICOH can assist the SCs in enhancing theiractivities and the collaboration among the SCs, 4) Assist the organization of the scientific programme ofICOH 2012 by providing inputs of the programme1) Advise the Officers and the Board on the implementation of Constitution, Bye-Laws and Guidelines ofICOH activities, 2) Review and draft the amendments to Constitution and Bye-Laws, 3) Develop guide-lines for ICOH International Conferences, 4) Review and amend as required the Guidelines for NationalSecretaries and for Scientific Committees, 5) Develop documents on Good Association Practice (GAP)6)Plan and propose new Award systems for ICOH1) Advise the Officers and the Board on information activities and internal communication of ICOH, 2)Function as an editorial board for advising the Editor in Chief of the ICOH Newsletter, 3) Review thedevelopment and utilization of the ICOH web system for advising the Editor in Chief of ICOHweb, 4)Improve ICOH internal communication, 5) The Secretary General is responsible for publishing the ICOHofficial documents (core documents, minutes, reports, etc.), 6) Work in co-operation with the Internation-al Communication and Information Technology Network for Occupational Safety and Health1) Advise the Officers and the Board on membership matters, 2) Coordinate actions for membershiprecruitment and sustainability, 3) Propose actions for recruitment members by National Secretaries, 4)Plan practices and materials needed for Membership Campaigns, 5) Examine possibilities for recruitmentof new Sustaining Members, Affiliate Members and enhance their visibility and roles in relation to ICOH1) Advise the Officers and the Board on activities related to restructuring and occupational health, 2)Review national and global employment situations and their impacts on occupational health and proposeICOH action needed, 3) Examine the occupational health dimensions of non-regular employment andpropose ICOH actions needed, 4) Produce guidelines for occupational health professionals about OHpractices for workers in non-regular employment1) Coordinate networking activities for promoting international communication and information tech-nology for occupational safety and health and advise the Board and Officers on necessary action, 2) Workin close cooperation with the TG on Information and the TG on Membership, .3) Study the potentialprovided by ICT to occupational health.

1) Make recommendations on advancing protection from occupational infectious agents, 2) Examine theneeds for protection against occupational infectious agents and produce fact sheets on how to protectworkers against these agents at work in any work environment, 3) Draft specific ICOH guidelines forHIV/AIDS at the workplace1) Make recommendations on advancing professional curricula for occupational health, 2) Identify andfollow up professional curricula development in the occupational health and safety disciplines and occu-pational medicine in other bodies, 3) Develop curricula for occupational health, working in close collab-oration with the SCs on Training and Education and on Occupational Health and Development, 4) Reviewand propose international support measures concerning professional education for Basic OccupationalHealth Services1) Make recommendation on ICOH action concerning young workers and child labour, 2) Take contactand serve as a liaison with the ILO IPEC activities, 3) In view of ILO policy and IPEC research anddocumentation, examine the occupational health dimension of young workers and child labour, 4)Produce a concise position paper on occupational health aspects of young workers and child labour.1) Keep contacts with the respective international organization, 2) Follow up their activities related toICOH action, 3) Report on important events related to occupational health, 4) Participate and representICOH in the major events of the respective organisations on the request by President and within the limitsof financial resources available, .5) Report annually on the contacts and events in collaboration

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Honour to serve ICOH –Privilege to promote global

occupational health

In order to follow the tradition started in 2005, I have asked the PastPresident of ICOH to sum up the main activities of the past six years.

You may read below the description of the two triennia.Editor

Three previous Presidents of ICOH, Pro-fessor Sven Hernberg, Professor Jean-François Caillard and Professor BengtKnave analysed their experiences in theservice of ICOH in previous Newsletters(2005;3:issues 1–3). Now the Editor askedme to join my distinguished predecessorsand report on my experiences in ICOH. Iappreciate this opportunity particularlyas it allows me to reflect on my 34 yearswith ICOH. My ICOH activities startedwith my participation in the ICOH 1975Congress in Brighton, United Kingdom.I had the privilege of serving as Boardmember in 1987–1990 and for the period2003 to 2009 I had the honour of servingas ICOH President for two consecutivetriennia.

These were good opportunities toprepare for the ICOH Presidency eventhough I never planned to serve in thatposition. Work within and participationin the excellent scientific events of numer-ous Scientific Committees; for example,Agriculture (nowadays Rural health: Ag-riculture, Pesticides and Organic dusts),Training and Education, Small-Scale En-terprises and Informal Sector, Aging and

Work, PREMUS, EPICOH and SCOH-DEV, Toxicology, Health Services Researchand Occupational Health for Health CareWorkers have been most educational. Thiswas very important as, besides giving thesubstantive content and most recent sci-entific data, it also illustrated how theOrganization works in practice in its mostcentral activity: research.

The early experience from theBoard was also very useful preparation.The privilege of working under the Pres-idency of my closest co-worker in the Finn-ish Institute of Occupational Health, Pro-

fessor Sven Hernberg was crucial. One ofSven’s key achievements was a thoroughrenewal of the Constitution and Bye-Laws, which were both redrafted and ex-amined carefully in the Board. This proc-ess gave a very good background onICOH governance as the Regulations af-ter that renewal have not been radicallychanged. It was also a privilege to workclosely with two consecutive Presidents,Jean-François Caillard and Bengt Knave,who both developed ICOH substantiallyboth as an Association and in researchactivities. In early 2002 it was necessary tofollow the principle that I have adoptedon overseas flights when the captain callsfor a doctor: never respond to the firsttwo calls as there is a high probabilitythat much more competent, practisingcolleagues are on the flight. But when thethird call comes, it starts to be an ethicalissue. When Bengt called for the third timefrom the Rome Mid-term Meeting of theICOH Board, there was no chance to sayno. And it has been no reason to lookback on that decision: Thanks to the pre-vious ICOH Leaders the Association wasin good shape, vital and active with a goodname and reputation.

2003–2006

The 2003–2006 tenure was exceptional inthe view that turnover in the ICOH Lead-ership was almost maximal: three out offour Officers rotated in the Iguassu ICOH2003 Congress and much of the continu-ity rested on the shoulders of the SeniorVice President Ruddy Facci, who aftersuccessful organization of Iguassu Con-gress, continued his second term. Alongwith the rotation of the Secretary Gener-al, the ICOH office that had been in Sin-gapore for 15 years (during the tenures

Together with Professor Leo Noro andProfessor Marco Saric in the Du-

brovnik ICOH Congress

Professor Sven Hernberg served as President in 1989.

12

of Professors Jerry Jeyaratnam and Kee-Seng Chia), was also moved to Rome,which resulted in major work for boththe former and the new Secretary Gener-al. Fortunately, we received in ProfessorSergio Iavicoli a very dynamic and skillfulSecretary General and his home Institute,ISPESL, provided strong institutionalsupport to the Secretariat that made thegreat transition successful. Since then Ser-gio, his Staff and the ISPESL have beenand I am sure, will also be in future themost important asset of ICOH.

The ICOH 2003 Congress with thetheme: The Challenge of Equity in Safetyand Health at Work discussed the topicalthemes in global occupational health andsafety, particularly in view of equity. Theperspectives for the development of oc-cupational health were challenging in viewof globalization. In spite of advances inthe safety and health of the industrializedcountries, a high loss of life years (i.e. 2million fatalities a year), health and workability was still estimated due to persist-ent traditional OH&S hazards in manyindustrialized and particularly in the new-ly industrialized, transitory and develop-ing countries, causing striking inequitiesamong the working populations of theworld. Demographic and social changesin the global workforce such as ageing,increasing numbers of female workers,young and child workers, migrants, andseveral underserved and vulnerablegroups, particularly in developing coun-tries constituted a great challenge. Thesetrends were aggravated by economic re-cession in several industrialized countriesand particularly in the developing world.Simultaneously, the occupational healthproblems of “new economies” such asstress, time pressures, exclusion, unem-ployment and even violence, harassmentand destructive behaviour at the work-place, and HIV/AIDS risks were recog-nized. Occupational health hazards ofchild labour were also discussed in Iguas-su.

The new technologies had a two-sided health impact; on one hand, theyimproved health and safety by providingbetter possibilities for follow-up and con-trolling production processes, but on theother hand bringing an epidemic of prob-lems related to visual ergonomics andupper body musculoskeletal disorders.Continuing introduction of new technol-ogies, new substances and new materialscalled for the earliest possible risk as-sessment by using the precautionaryprinciple as an approach. The downsiz-

ing and outsourcing of occupationalhealth services changed the position ofservice providers and their contacts withworkplaces. The equity challenges ofglobalization were a topic of intensivediscussions in Iguassu.

A number of positive trends wasalso recognized, that were expected tosupport occupational health activities,such as passing new OSH legislation inseveral industrialized countries, particu-larly in the Central and Eastern Europe-an Countries, which were preparing forEU accession. This also happened in April2004 when 10 countries joined the EUfamily and started to implement both theEU Directives and the new EU Strategy2002–2006 in Occupational Safety andHealth. This strengthened the legal basisand rate of activities of occupationalhealth both in the Western and Easternparts of Europe. Similarly, new legisla-tions were prepared or passed in someAsian countries such as Korea and Singa-pore. There were also some positive signsin the newly industrialized countries ofAsia and Latin America, as well as in de-veloping Africa. The ILO launched its Glo-bal Strategy on Occupational Safety andHealth in 2003 and in the same year WHO,the ILO and ICOH jointly launched theBasic Occupational Health Services,BOHS-approach for filling the gaps inoccupational health services in the world,and thus working for equity. New oppor-tunities provided by the ICTs for global,regional, national and local networkingthat generated good opportunities forequalization of the access to information,were also discussed in the ICOH 2003Congress.

After such an extensive discussionin the Congress, the second General As-sembly in Iguassu approved strategy pri-orities for the 2003–2006 triennium. Theoverall principles were to strengthenICOH research, improve its transfer topractice through information, training,

development of services and good prac-tices and to enhance ethics dimension todevelop ICOH as the leading guardian ofprofessional ethics in occupational health.

Meanwhile the 35 Scientific Com-mittees – each in their special areas ofcompetence – were called on to considerthe above challenges, when appropriate.The ICOH Board decided to specificallyaddress the following substantive aspects,to provide ICOH response as a whole (thespecial action in parenthesis):• Biological hazards, including HIV/

AIDS (A special Working Group: Oc-cupational infectious agents)

• Child work, initially through net-working (A special Task Group)

• Basic occupational health services (Incollaboration with WHO and theILO)

• Occupational health for workingwomen (A special Working Group)

• Tobacco hazards at the workplace (Aspecial Network)

• Computerized work (Liaison with theWork With Computer Systems-Net-work, WWCS).

Many of these activities continuedthe work started already in the previoustenure under the leadership of the ICOHPresident, Professor Bengt Knave.

In addition, ICOH objectives fordevelopment as an Association were rec-ognized and the following priorities wereset for the tenure:• Structuring ICOH as an organization

(Introduction of new planning andmanagement by results practices, andreporting and follow-up mecha-nisms)

• Strengthening alliances with ILO andWHO (Regular participation in thetop governance meetings and organ-ization of joint substantive meetings)

• Increasing the membership and pro-viding more added value to the Mem-bers. Increasing the number of youngmembers and members from devel-oping countries. (Reduction of mem-bership fees for young and DC mem-bers, membership campaigns)

• Carrying out effective internal andexternal information activities (Web-site development, hard copy ICOHNewsletter, ICOH leaflets, PositionPapers)

• Preparing for centennial events (Aspecial Centennial Committee)

• Supporting, facilitating and co-ordi-nating the activities of the ScientificCommittees (Special Guideline forScientific Committees).

With Professor Bengt Knave,Iguassu 2003

13

The achievement of objectives wasevaluated in the Mid-term Helsinki meet-ing of the Board in 2005 and in the MilanBoard meeting in 2006. The rate ofachievement was good, (for example 515new members were recruited), but notcomplete, something like 85–90%.

For many of us the tenure 2003-2006 was a very busy time, due to simul-taneous operation of ICOH “normal”activities, preparation of ICOH 2006Congress and preparation of the Centen-nial celebrations of the 100 years old Or-ganization in its birthplace, Milan. Thetheme of the ICOH 2006 Centennial Con-gress was historical: “Renewing a Centu-ry of Commitment to Healthy, Safe andProductive Work Life”.

In the Centennial Opening Ceremo-nies, the Assembly approved and theICOH Leadership signed the ICOH Cen-tennial Declaration calling “all the Inter-governmental Organizations, Govern-ments, Industrial and other Economic Or-ganizations, Professional Associations andNon-governmental Organizations to joinforces for improvement of the conditionsof work, health, safety and well-being atwork and to provide basic occupationalhealth services to all working peoplethroughout the world, particularly in thedeveloping countries”.

The Centennial Committee planneda number of social events for celebratingthe anniversary as impressively as possi-ble. The Italian Organizers, under the lead-ership of Professor Vito Foa and with thededicated efforts of the Secretary GeneralSergio Iavicoli, made the practical ar-rangements of the events, including theCentennial Plenary Session of ICOH.Centennial Awards were solemnly award-ed to two Senior Leaders of ICOH, Pro-fessor Sven Hernberg, former Presidentof ICOH, Professor Jerry Jeyaratnam, along-time Secretary General of ICOH andthe legendary Clinica del Lavoro, Univer-sity of Milan, the original home of ICOH.Distinguished Service Awards were pre-sented to four previous Presidents ofICOH, Professor Jean-François Caillard,Professor, Dr. Ruddy Facci (Iguassu2003), Professor Bengt Knave (Stock-holm 1996), Professor Marco Saric (Du-brovnik 1978) and Ms. Kathleen White,long time Secretary of ICOH Secretariat.Professor Antonio Moccaldi, President ofthe ISPESL, host Institute of the currentICOH Secretariat, was awarded for hisinvaluable support to ICOH activities.The Ceremonies also included the ap-pointment of seven honorary members

and the awarding of several ICOH serv-ice awards to members who had servedtwo full tenures in the Scientific Commit-tee Officer position.

The Italian ICOH Leaders andmembers had done marvellous work tocollect, under the leadership of ProfessorAntonio Colombi, University of Milan,the Thesaurus of all the ICOH Congresspresentations during the 100 years peri-od and a CD Disc on the historical herit-age of ICOH, edited under the leadershipof Professor Sergio Iavicoli, ISPESL andICOH, Rome. The CD was distributed toevery Congress participant and consti-tutes a unique asset for ICOH.

The celebrations were also an im-pressive social event, including a magnif-icent special performance of La Scala Op-era dedicated to ICOH and the Centenni-al Dinner for all ICOH members in theFiera Milano New Century CongressCenter.

The ICOH 2006 Congress was thescientific high point of the 100-year his-tory of ICOH. The scientific programmewas planned and organized under theleadership of the Scientific Chairman ofthe ICOH 2006 Congress, Professor Pier-Alberto Bertazzi of Milan. The pro-gramme content corresponded to the highhistorical status of the Congress. A totalof 3000 participants from 93 countriesattended, 1800 research communicationswere delivered, of which 700 were oralpresentations in 158 sessions.

I will pick only few priority issuesdiscussed in several presentations:- Global burden of occupational inju-

ries and diseases- Ageing workers in today’s globalizing

and rapidly changing work life- Changing work and stress, health ef-

fects and prevention- New risks, particularly non-ionizing

radiation, nanotechnologies, new tox-ic risks

- Occupational health for high-riskgroups, such as agricultural workers,SME workers and health care work-ers

- New biological risks, particularlySARS

- Utilization in occupational health ofadvances in other fields of research,such as basic biomedicine, genomicsand metabonomics.

The Milan Centennial Congresswas both scientifically and socially amemorable event and for many of us themost intensive and touching experienceduring our professional life. Colleaguesthroughout the ICOH community re-peatedly refer to it as the top benchmarkevent in ICOH’s 100-year life.

2006–2009

The last tenure of ICOH’s first centurycan be recorded as successful, providinga good basis for continuing to the secondcentury that started formally in the Sec-ond General Assembly in Milan, wherethe strategic priorities were approved forthe new 2006–2009 triennium. The over-all principles remained the same as dur-ing the previous triennium. A part of the

During the 1980s and 1990s work was carried out with several ICOH scs.

With Professor Vito Foa, Milan 2006

14

understanding (MoU) between IEA,IOHA and ICOH, a bilateral MoUwith ISSA and another one with IALI.Strengthening relationships with 10big national Associations of Occupa-tional Health or respective bodies).

• Strengthening Information activities(Task Group on Information. Fur-ther developing the ICOH Newslet-ter, ICOH leaflet, other printed infor-mation and one smaller and one ma-jor renewal of the ICOH website).

• Development of Membership (TaskGroup on Membership. Improvingmembership services, increasing therecruitment of young members andmembers from developing countries,supporting activities of National Sec-retaries. Total number of new mem-bers in the triennium, 485).

The Mid-term Meeting of theICOH Board assessed the progress in allthe priorities in March 2008 and also pre-pared some important amendments inICOH regulations related to sanctions forcases of violation of the principles of theICOH Code of Ethics, even proposing achange in constitution on this matter. TheHamburg Meeting was also an impor-tant event in two other ways; ICOH sub-stantially developed its relationships withthe German Association of OccupationalMedicine, DGAUM and there was a jointscientific event on translation research,ethics and on assessment of new risks, inwhich ICOH either carried the role oforganizer (translation) or contributedsubstantially.

The ICOH Scientific Committeeswere highly active during the whole trien-nium so that virtually every week some-where in the world a scientific meeting waseither organized by one of the ICOH Sci-entific Committees or organized by otherbodies with strong ICOH contribution.

On ICOH global activities I willmention only four high-points in the tri-ennium that started with the CentennialCongress in Milan:• Contribution to the ILO Framework

Convention and the WHO GlobalAction Plan on Workers’ Health.ICOH was invited to participate indrafting and some of ICOH pointswere well considered, such as basicoccupational health services.

• ICOH was invited to contribute to thedrafting of the Seoul Declaration onSafety and Health at Work and toparticipate in the First World Sum-mit on Occupational Safety andHealth on 29 June 2008 in Seoul, Ko-

rea. Together with participation in thedrafting of ILO and WHO global in-struments, this was a direct opportu-nity for ICOH to contribute to theglobal occupational health and safetypolicy. ICOH particularly emphasizedthe need for organizing occupationalhealth services for all working peoplein the world.

• ICOH also contributed more effec-tively and intensively than ever to thepreparation and organization of thescientific programme of the ILO-ISSAXVIII World Congress on Occupa-tional Safety and Health, held imme-diately after the World Summit inSeoul.

• Collaboration with WHO and ILORegional Offices was constantly ac-tive and most satisfactory. Withoutmentioning any special Region wewere given, for example, the oppor-tunity to promote basic occupationalhealth services in numerous policy-level and practical meetings of Regionsand to work in close collaboration onpractical programmes in all Regions:AFRO, EMRO, EURO, PAHO, SEAROand WPRO of WHO, and the ILOAsian Office, Bangkog and ILO Re-gional Office for Africa, Addis Aba-ba.

ICOH has been exceptionally for-tunate in this collaboration; we have beengiven a political umbrella by the Inter-Governmental Organizations and it haspermitted us to make professional, scien-tific and practical contributions for im-plementation of globally accepted poli-cies.

The triennium ended with the 29thICOH 2009 Congress in Cape Town SouthAfrica on 22–27 March 2009. This wasthe first ever ICOH Congress organizedin Sub-Saharan Africa. We had great ex-pectations, but also great challenges inplanning, organization and implementa-tion at the site of the Congress. It was notonly the challenges of the long distance,growing international financial crisis, lim-ited resources of local organizers, but alsocertain cultural and practical challengeswhich needed to be managed. But at theend of the day everything was fine; 1400participants from 81 countries, and alto-gether 1300 different kinds of scientificcommunications were delivered. Both theICOH, particularly the Vice PresidentMarilyn Fingerhut and the South AfricanOrganizers, Professor Mary Ross and Dr.Claudina Nogueira and Professor DaanKocks with Dr. Danie Ungerer and their

specific objectives were continuation ofthe activities from the previous trienni-um, but new topics were also included.Again the priorities were divided into twocategories, substantive priorities and as-sociation objectives:Substantive priorities• Strengthening training and education

in occupational health and safety (Aspecial Working Group on Core Cur-ricula)

• Developing occupational health serv-ices throughout the world, includingthe development and disseminationof basic occupational health services,BOHS (BOHS pilots in several coun-tries, China, Vietnam, North-WestRussia, South East European Sub-re-gion, East Africa and Latin America).

• Responding to challenges from thechanging world of work and identi-fying and assessing new risks (Col-laboration with the European RiskObservatory and participation in Sci-entific Congresses on new risks,such as nanotechnologies and newinfectious agents. Contributing to abook on Risk in the Modern Socie-ty).

• Developing good occupational healthpractices, GOHP (Global OHS guide-line, Good practice guidelines forBOHS)

• Developing and strengthening in-duction, guidance and conduct inethics (Task Group on Transparencyand Ethics. Activation of global ethi-cal discussion, implementation ofICOH Code of Ethics in Association’sown practices, emphasizing trainingin ethics, tuning ICOH regulations andguidelines in line with Code of Ethics,collaborating with CIOMS in researchethics).

Developing ICOH as an Association• Continuation of Organizational de-

velopment, OD (Task Group onConstitution, Bye-Laws and Guide-lines. Strengthening of managementpractices, completing four guidelinesfor practices of ICOH; Guidelines forinternational congresses, scientificcommittees, national secretaries andgood association practice. Organiza-tion of virtual offices for ScientificCommittees and National Secretar-ies.)

• Developing collaboration with allies(Participating actively in collabora-tion with WHO and the ILO at alllevels of their activities, preparing andsigning the triple memorandum of

15

Organizing Committee, deserve ourthanks for the enormous work they didfor the success of the Congress. It is alsoworth mentioning that thanks to theICOH Working Group on Fund Raisingchaired by Suvi Lehtinen, ICOH was ableto support participation of 76 and theAfrican Organizers 23 participants fromdeveloping countries.

I will again pick only a few pointshighlighting the scientific content of theICOH 2009 Congress: First, our Distin-guished Keynote Lecturer, Professor, SirMichael Marmot, University College ofLondon, introduced his WHO Commit-tee work on Social Determinants ofHealth: An eye-opening Report and itsconclusions, including implications inoccupational health. Fifteen recognizedkeynote presenters made excellent sum-maries on the current state of the art inoccupational health research and re-search in related fields by presentingtheir syntheses in a most illustrative way.Now, for example, when swine flu isspreading, ICOH members can make useof the excellent overview of ProfessorSchoub on the global update of pandem-ics and HIV/AIDS. The ICOH ScientificCommittees contributed intensively to thefree communications and organized morethan 100 Special Sessions for the Con-gress. Our Italian colleagues, ProfessorSergio Iavicoli and Professor AntonioBergamashi and his colleagues, as well asProfessor Paul Blanck, USA, had done amarvellous job. The first English editionof the collection of complete works of Ber-nardino Ramazzini was presented to eve-ry participant of the ICOH2009.

In the closing session of the ICOHCongress I had a privilege to present afew points on the scientific outcomes ofthe Congress. My conclusions were asfollows:1. The industrialized and developing

countries widely share the same prob-lems of occupational health, both tra-ditional and new, but their weight anddistribution is different.

2. Traditionally OH research tends tolag behind the developments of worklife. Challenges set by new technolo-gies and new developments in the glo-balizing world of work are enormous.We should try to develop our researchin a more anticipatory and pro-ac-tive direction in order to provide abetter response to the demands ofwork life for development of safe andhealthy working conditions.

3. The scope of occupational health is in

the process of expansion. In additionto traditional physico-chemical, bio-logical and ergonomic and safety haz-ards, new challenges related to psy-chological and psycho-socialfactors, new modes for work organi-zation, new employment patterns,new managerial systems and newtechnology and biohazards, as wellas the social determinants of occu-pational health, call for expansion ofthe scope of our research.

4. The morbidity patterns of workingpopulations are changing. While indeveloping countries and several sec-tors of economies in the industrial-ized and transitory countries, tradi-tional health and safety hazards stilldominate, new hazards and challeng-es are also emerging. The impact ofwork on health is found to be two-directional: Good jobs improve andpromote health and work ability,while poor and hazardous work isdangerous to health and work ability.

5. New research data on the high im-portance of work-relatedness of com-mon communicable and non-com-municable diseases expands the esti-mates for disease burden of work onthe health of working populations.These findings emphasize again theimportance of widening the scope ofoccupational health research to thedirection of work-related morbidity.

6. High numbers of new and emergingoccupational risks have been recog-nized including risks related to nano-technologies, new biological hazardsincluding the risks of global pandem-ics, risks related to new global settingsand climate change, and new socialhazards, for example, to new types ofemployment and growing mobility ofworking populations. These new chal-lenges need to be actively and proac-tively researched, risks cautiously as-sessed and the results mediated with-out delays to the management of thenew and emerging hazards.

7. New research findings also call forexpansion of the scope of competenceof occupational health and researchexperts. Searching opportunities formultidisciplinary and multi-profes-sional collaboration and for collabo-ration with all the relevant stakehold-ers is important. The new substan-tive areas should also have an impacton the content of training curriculafor all expert categories active in oc-cupational health.

8. There is a wide gap between the exist-ing and available research knowledge,and its implementation in practicethrough regulations, standards, train-ing and the development of goodpractices. Better utilization of availa-ble research knowledge can be facili-tated by more active advocacy, infor-mation and awareness-raising by theresearch communities among all theother stakeholders active in occupa-tional health.

9. Collaboration with the key allies ac-tive in occupational health research,policy and practice is inevitable. Suchcollaboration needs strengthening atall levels: local, national, institution-al, regional and global. Regular mech-anisms for such collaboration shouldbe further developed. The ICOH Con-gresses provide an excellent forum forinteractive contacts.

10. Taking into consideration the highrisks to which the workers of theworld are exposed at work and thekey role of working populations insustaining the resource basis for allother sectors of society and the glo-bal system, the priority position ofoccupational health research needsto be enhanced on both national andglobal research agendas. Similarly,the occupational health services de-serve higher priority on the nationaland global health policy agendas.

11. The way from research to practicegoes through services. There is a spe-cial need to look at the occupationalhealth and working conditions of un-derserved sectors such as agriculture,small-scale enterprises and the infor-mal sector. These sectors should bemore intensively studied and inter-ventions and experiments should bedirected to the development of pro-grammes and services for improve-ment of their working conditions andfor the protection of large vulnerablegroups employed by those sectors.Basic occupational health servicesconstitute an important new globalinitiative.

12. The globalizing world of work chal-lenges the ethics of both occupationalhealth researchers and practitioners.It is important to continue the devel-opment and strengthening of the eth-ical dimension in occupational health.ICOH leadership role in global occu-pational health ethics should be fur-ther strengthened and expanded, andthe ethics dimension should be intro-

16

duced to practitioners and partnersthrough training, education and ac-tive discussion of ethics in all profes-sional events.

Let me summarize the conclusionsfrom two tenures of ICOH Presidency:Occupational health is needed todaymore than ever and will be even more soin future. The conditions to exercise oc-cupational health research and practiceare, however, getting harder. The world ischanging rapidly: careful vigilance and apro-active approach are needed in re-search. Both short-term and long-termvisions are important and do not replaceeach other. We must keep the valuesachieved from the past and simultane-ously look curiously at new challenges andopportunities. We need to keep togetherand strengthen ourselves mutually, carryout professional communication and sci-entific interaction, discuss practical caseswe have faced, and reflect on ethical is-sues to enhance our ethics competence.We should understand that high scientif-ic quality is important, effective and bestpractice is inevitable, as is effective train-ing and information, but all this shouldbe guided by our ethics to assure that allour competence and skills are used forthe good of the working people.

A proposed ICOH document onBiological Monitoring

At the 7th International Symposium onBiological Monitoring (ISBM 2007),which took place on 10-12 September2007 in Beijing, China, a review documenton Biomonitoring for OccupationalHealth & Risk Assessment (BOHRA) waspresented and discussed. The symposi-um was successfully organized by the Sci-entific Committees of Occupational Tox-icology (SCOT), Toxicology of Metals(SCTM) and Rural Health (SCRH) ofICOH and a report has already been pub-lished in Vol. 5, Number 3 of the News-letter.

Biological monitoring (BM) is afundamental tool in occupational health(OH) risk assessment and practice and ithas become probably the most active areain occupational health research today.From the few hundred papers publishedin the ‘80s, there are now several tens ofthousand papers on BM published in thepeer review literature each year, and thetrend is still rising exponentially. As a re-sult, BM has become a priority for OHprofessionals. Despite its current popu-larity, though, BM is not always correctlyused or interpreted. To fill this gap and tohelp an appropriate use of biomarkersand a correct interpretation of BM data,SCOT, in collaboration with SCTM andSCRH, has developed a document aimedto promote the advancement and diffu-sion of knowledge on BM among ICOHmembers and the entire OH professionalcommunity, including scientists, industrialhygienists and occupational health pro-fessionals.

The document contains the basicdefinitions, principles and instruments ofBM and, also, a number of recommen-dations to be considered when planning,performing and interpreting the resultsof BM programmes in exposed workers,including ethical aspects. The varioustypes of biomarkers, their toxicologicalsignificance, practical use and limitationsare discussed. A list of key references or

documents has been added.The document has been sent to

professionals, scientists and institutionsinvolved in BM and it is aimed to repre-sent the current official view of ICOH onBM in both occupational exposure as-sessment and human risk assessment.The document is not meant, though, torepresent a rigid nor a permanent set ofrules, but just the state of the art in BO-HRA research and practice, and it will beperiodically updated according to newdevelopments and any significant advancein BM science. Any part of the document,therefore, is open to comments/sugges-tions, which will also be considered in thepreparation of future editions.

To facilitate access to the docu-ment and to increase the potential audi-ence within the BM community, the cur-rent version of the document is beingpublished in an authoritative and popu-lar peer review journal (Toxicology Let-ters) as part of the Proceedings of ISBM2007. The final version of the documentwill eventually be sent to the new ICOHBoard for official approval and endorse-ment. We are grateful, therefore, to allcolleagues in academia, government andindustry who have sent, or will send, theircomments to improve it and make it suit-able to become an official ICOH Con-sensus Document.

Maurizio MannoSecretary of SCOT

Monica NordbergChair of SCTM

Claudio ColosioChair of SCRH

Claude ViauChair of SCOT

Sheng WangPresident of ISBM-2007

Occupational health is one of themost important global common goods.We should not in the first case ask whatICOH can do for us, but what we can dofor ICOH and first of all: What ICOHcan do for healthier and safer work andworking populations! What has been re-ported above has been a collective effortof the whole of ICOH and its Board andthe distinguished fellow Officers. Whileaddressing my cordial thanks to all whohave worked with me in the Leadershipand membership of ICOH, I wish the bestsuccess and support to the new Leader-ship of ICOH in efforts to continue itsgreat mission.

Professor Jorma Rantanen, MD, PhD,President of ICOH 2003-2009

With Dr. Kazutaka Kogi, new President ofICOH in Cape Town, March 2009

17

Name CountryJorge SALEM ArgentinaMaria Cecilia COLAUTTI ArgentinaEduardo Alberto SCARLATO ArgentinaSebastian Ignacio CUTRO ArgentinaCarlos SLEMENSON ArgentinaMichael Anthony MACHIN AustraliaRoss Irwin MILLS AustraliaCatharina VAN ECK BelgiumMarcia BANDINI BrazilBenedito Walter DE MARCO BrazilAna Paula SCALIA CARNEIRO BrazilAlfredo SOARES DIMERLO BrazilDebora Miriam Raab Glina BrazilFlavio TEXEIRA DE CARVALHO BrazilVinicio Cavalcante MOREIRA BrazilM. Lucienne KAMANY-KAMGUEU CamerounArthur Yee Hang WONG ChinaJian Xun HUANG ChinaHanlin HUANG ChinaAna Maria CABRERA VIDAL ColombiaMarta Luz BERNAL CAMACHO ColombiaEdgar VELANDIA ColombiaLuis Enrique GUERRERO MEDINA ColombiaEda MERISALU EstoniaKirsi KARVALA FinlandRaoul Allan GRONQVIST FinlandMerja Maarit PERKIÖ-MÄKELÄ FinlandSimo Pekka KALEVA FinlandTheodoros ZAMBOYANNIS GreeceConstantinos PETINIS GreeceArgyro KARELI GreeceEleni ZORBAS GreeceIlias ZORBAS GreeceRajiv GARG IndiaSuhartono WONG IndonesiaDonald John GALLAGHER IrelandMartin Gerard HOGAN IrelandMauro VALSIGLIO ItalyFabrizio MELIGA ItalyDiana GAGLIARDI ItalySimona PULINI Italy

Name CountryMarino DI CARLANTONIO ItalyDina DI GIUSEPPE ItalyAngela DI DONATO ItalyKanayama HITOMI JapanTiti Rahmawati HAMEDON MalaysiaGabriela RAMIREZ MexicoAida Lucia FAJARDO MONTIEL MexicoConstantino VIDAL MexicoMario Alberto VILLAGOMEZ MexicoAlejandra Alicia SILVA MexicoMaria MALDONADO MexicoJosé LOPEZ MexicoManuel HERNANDEZ MexicoRicardo Jatue GUERRA MexicoRamiro RODRIGUEZ MexicoKarin Rita BURKHARDT NamibiaOnyenmechi Johnson AFONNE NigeriaRenato VARGAS ZEGARRA PeruBenito REVERENTE PhilippinesAlina Elzbieta BUCZYNSKA PolandYun Kyung CHUNG Republic of KoreaInah KIM Republic of KoreaHong JUNGYEON Republic of KoreaLinda Denise GRAINGER South AfricaDave KNIGHT South AfricaAnna Johanna BRUWER South AfricaJacob Pieter Hendrik LUBBE South AfricaAnette Leonor Telmo THOMPSON South AfricaVanessa GOVENDER South AfricaAnna DAHLMAN-HOGLUND SwedenGerd Ingeborg SALLSTEN SwedenSwiss Medical Society for Occupational HealthSOHF SwitzerlandNadi BAKIRCI TurkeyMelih Kaan SOZMEN TurkeyAbel NIYIBIZI UgandaKonstantin V. BERESTNEV USANicolau J. CHAMMA USAMichael ASCHNER USATamara Young BLOW USAMichael Shane ANDREW USA

NEW ICOH websiteopenedThe ICOH website has been renewed and developed further alsoto facilitate the activities of the members and various actors,such as National Secretaries, Chairs and Secretaries of Scien-tific Committees and ICOH Officers.

Please visit the new website: www.icohweb.org

New Members

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Résumé en français

Message du Président

Chers collègues de la CIST,

Lors du Congrès triennal qui a eu lieu àCape Town, nous avons constaté degrands progrès dans les activités de laCIST, ce qui est très encourageant.

Je suis très reconnaissant de la con-fiance accordée par les membres pournotre travail. Le nouveau Bureau et Con-seil se sont mis d’accord à Cape Townpour continuer à développer nos activi-tés et nos réseaux pour promouvoir mon-dialement la recherche et la pratique dela santé au travail.

Quels sont nos atouts ?

Un des tous premiers atouts de la CISTest l’utilisation de notre réseau pour larecherche sur l’évaluation et le contrôleproactif des risques en milieux de travail.Un autre de nos atouts importants estnotre rôle primordial pour faire le lienentre la santé et le développement. Nousfournissons des outils pratiques pouraméliorer les conditions et l’environne-ment de travail dans les secteurs en pénu-rie de services, particulièrement dans lespays en voie en développement.

À Cape Town, nous avons puconstater des progrès dans l’évaluationet dans le contôle des troubles musculo-squelettiques, les maladies respiratoires,les facteurs psycho-sociaux, lesproblèmes liés à des risques émergeantstels que les risques neurotoxiques,allergiques, reproductifs ou infectueux.Nous avons également progressé dansla protection de la santé des travailleursdes petites entreprises, des agriculteurs,des travailleurs dans les secteurs deséconomies parallèles et ceux dans dansles pays en voie de développement. Lesoutien financier de la CIST a permis à100 experts venant de ces pays departiciper au Congrès CIST2009.

Nos plans d’action communs

Les deux Assemblées Générales organi-sées à Cape Town, ont fait ressortir ungrand besoin de fixer des étapes concrè-tes dans nos plans de travail pour 2009–2012. Nos plans d’action communs de-vraient inclure (a) le développement del’évaluation et du contrôle proactifs des

risques sur les lieux de travail, (b) la miseà disposition de services de santé au tra-vail à tous les travailleurs du monde, (c)le développement de boîtes à outils prati-ques utilisables sur le champ, et (d) le ren-forcement des réseaux de la CIST.

Qu’est-ce que nous devons amélior-er ?

Une leçon importante que nous avonsretenue est que nous devons élaborer desobjectifs pour la gestion et les procéduresqui sont réalisables dans différents mi-lieux de travail. Un effort particulier doitêtre fait afin de concevoir des lignes direc-trices et des boîtes à outils pratiques pourles enquêtes de santé et l’application demesures de prévention primaire.

Nous devons aussi améliorer notreefficacité afin d’avoir des résultats prati-ques, d’augmenter la visibilité des activi-tés de la CIST et de recruter de nouveauxmembres.

Communication et réunions

Communiquons entre les Comités Scien-tiques, groupes de travail et équipes deprojet ainsi que par l’intermédiaire desSecrétaires Nationaux ! Pour cela, notrenouveau site Internet est très utile.

Les diverses réunions, conférenceset formations offrent des moyens précieuxpour progresser selon nos plans de tra-vail. La préparation en commun des Con-grès CIST2012 à Monterrey et CIST2015à Séoul nous donne aussi une possibilitépour développer notre travail.

Je souhaite à tous nos membres unepériode triennale fructueuse et beaucoupde succès dans nos efforts communs pourla santé de travail pour tous !

Kazutaka KogiPrésident de la CIST

Mots de l’Editeur

Le Congrès CIST2009 à Cape Town estmaintenant derrière nous, et nous vou-lons remercier les organisateurs locaux deleur grand travail pour cet évènement,particulièrement bien réussi. Le Congrèsa rassemblé un total de 1.400 experts ve-nant de 81 pays.

Dans son discours de remerciementlors de la séance de clôture, le DocteurEdith Clarke du Ghana a dit que le Con-grès fut un excellent forum pour appren-dre, échanger des informations et établirdes réseaux. Cela a été prouvé par le faitque malgré des conférences très matina-les, les salles étaient toujours pleines (leslectures principales ont commencé à 8heures).

Le prochain bulletin

Vous avez dû attendre ce numéro un peuplus longtemps que d’habitude car noussommes en train de transférer la procé-dure de publication vers la Corée.

Le prochain bulletin sera édité etpublié par le nouvel Editeur, le ProfesseurSeong-Kyu Kang (KOSHA, Corée). Laparution du prochain numéro est prévuepour la fin août 2009. La date limite pourla réception du matériel est le 10 juillet2009. Veuillez envoyer vos contributionsà l’adresse e-mail suivante skk@kosha.net.

Copie papier ou version électroniqueimprimable sur le site Internet de laCIST ?

Après 6 ans de publication, le bulletin d’in-formation de la CIST est bien établi. Aprèsle Congrès d’Iguassu, la direction de laCIST avait pris comme décision de pu-blier une copie papier du bulletin et del’envoyer à tous les membres en règle. Ilest temps de vous demander de nouveausi la version électronique imprimablepourrait être suffisante ? Cela nous feraitéconomiser beaucoup d’argent qui pour-rait être utilisé pour d’autres activités. LeDocteur Seong-Kyu Kang vous contacte-ra ultérieurement pour cette question.

Une fois encore, un grand merci àvous tous !

Je suis contente de laisser le bulletin d’in-formation entre les bonnes mains du pro-chain éditeur. Pour finir, j’aimerais encore

19

Résumé en français

vous remercier de votre soutien et de vo-tre confiance ! J’attends de pouvoir tra-vailler avec vous dans un autre contexte.

Suvi Lehtinen

Congrès CIST2009 àCapetown

Le 29ème Congrès International de laCIST a été organisé du 22 au 27 mars 2009à Cape Town (Afrique du Sud), pour latoute première fois en Afrique sub-saha-rienne. Un nombre total de 1.400 expertsde 81 pays y ont pris part. La participa-tion d’environ 100 experts de 40 pays envoie de développement ou en transition aété rendue possible grâce à un soutien fi-nancier de la CIST.

Les 1.292 présentations orales sesont divisées d’une façon égale : 406 pré-sentations orales dans les séances spécia-les, 443 présentations orales dans les séan-ces thématiques et 443 posters. Le pro-gramme a débuté chaque jour par 3 lec-tures principales.

Les cérémonies d’ouverture

Le Congrès a débuté dimanche le 22 mars2009. En plus des discours de bienvenueadressés par le Président de la CIST, leProfesseur Jorma Rantanen et le Prési-dent du Congrès CIST2009, le ProfesseurDaan Kocks, les participants ont été ac-cueillis par le Docteur de l’OMS MariaNeira et le Docteur Sameera Al-Tuwaijride l’OIT par une vidéo. Le Docteur Lin-diwe Ndelu du ministère de la Santé a ex-primé les salutations du gouvernementde l’Afrique du Sud. De plus, les repré-sentants de plusieurs organisationssoeurs de la CIST ont présenté leurs salu-tations aux participants. Sir Michael Mar-mot a donné la lecture principale d’ouver-ture qui traitait des inéquités sociales dansle monde global du travail. Les résumésde toutes les présentations seront pro-chainement disponibles sur le site Inter-net de la CIST.

Participation active des pays en voiede développement et en transition

Les Congrès de la CIST ont traditionnel-lement facilité la participation des experts

venant des pays en voie de développe-ment et en transition. Après la réuniondu Conseil à Hamburg, le Président de laCIST a établi un groupe de travail afinde collecter des fonds pour laparticipation des experts de ces pays. Denombreuses organisations ont soutenufinancièrement leur participation. LaCIST exprime sa gratitude pour leurscontributions.

De plus, plusieurs séances spécialesconcernant les différentes régions géogra-phiques ont été organisées.

Réunions

Une réunion commune pour le Bureau,les Secrétaires et les Présidents des Comi-tés Scientifiques a été organisée le samediavant l’ouverture du Congrès.

La réunion des Secrétaires Natio-naux a eu lieu le jeudi 26 mars 2009 avec26 participants. Leurs rapports se trou-vent sur le site Internet de la CIST.

Congrès CIST2012 et CIST2015

Le Congrès CIST2012 aura lieu à Mon-terrey (Mexique) du 18 au 23 Mars 2012.Son thème est « Santé au Travail pourTous : de la Recherche à la Pratique ». Lesite Internet du congrès est actuellementen construction.

Les membres de la CIST ont choisiSéoul (Corée) pour la venue du Congrèsde 2015.

Le nouveau Bureau et Conseil

La deuxième Assemblée Générale s’est réu-nie immédiatement après la cérémonie declôture. Le nouveau Président de la CIST,le Docteur Kazutaka Kogi a reçu le mar-teau des mains du Professeur Jorma Ran-tanen, l’ancien Président. Le nouveauBureau et Conseil ont eu leur premièreréunion samedi le 28 mars 2009. À l’agen-da, il y avait, entre autres, le plan de tra-vail de la prochaine période triennale pré-senté par le nouveau Président.

Surveillance biologique – un compterendu proposé pour la CIST

Dans le 7ème Symposium International surla surveillance biologique, organisé du 10au 12 septembre 2007 à Pékin (Chine),un compte rendu sur la surveillance bio-logique et sur l’évaluation des risques dansle domaine de la santé au travail a été pré-

senté et discuté. Le rapport du sympo-sium a déjà été publié dans le volume V,numéro 3 de ce bulletin.

La surveillance biologique est unoutil de base dans l’évaluation des risqueset la pratique de la santé au travail. Elleest probablement devenue un des domai-nes de recherche les plus actifs. En consé-quence, la surveillance est devenue unepriorité pour les professionnels de la santéau travail. Malgré sa popularité actuelle,la surveillance biologique n’est pas tou-jours utilisée ou interprétée correctement.Pour répondre à ce problème et faciliterl’utilisation appropriée des biomarqueurset l’interprétation des données, trois Co-mités Scientifiques de la CIST ont rédigéun compte rendu qui contient les défini-tions, les principes et les instruments debase de la surveillance biologique ainsi quedes recommandations. De plus, une listede références et de documents clés ont étéajoutés au compte-rendu. Le document aété envoyé a des professionnels, scientifi-ques et institutions engagés dans ce do-maine pour avoir leurs commentaires. Lebut est que ce document représente aussiles positions de la CIST. Nous sommesreconnaissants de tous les commentairesque vous enverrez pour améliorer ce do-cument.

L’honneur de servir la CIST –le privilège de promouvoir lasanté au travailmondialement

Les trois anciens Présidents de la CIST,les Professeurs Sven Hernberg, Jean-Fran-çois Caillard et Bengt Knave, ont déjàanalysé leurs expériences au service de laCIST dans ce bulletin (Vol. 3; 1–3). Main-tenant l’éditeur m’a invité à me joindre àmes imminents prédécesseurs et d’exami-ner mes expériences. Le Congrès de Bri-ghton (Royaume-Uni) en 1975 a marquéle début de mes activités au sein de la CIST.J’ai eu le privilège de sièger comme mem-bre du Conseil durant la période 1987–1990 et comme Président durant deuxpériodes consécutives entre 2003 et 2009.

Plus tard j’ai réalisé que j’avais eude bonnes opportunités afin de me pré-parer pour la présidence même si je n’avaisjamais pensé assumer cette position.J’avais pris grand plaisir à travailler et à

Résumé en français

Board Mid-term Meeting in Helsinki 1989.

participer à de nombreux Comités et évè-nements scientifiques. C’était très impor-tant car en plus de leur apport scientifi-que, cela m’a montré comment notre as-sociation fonctionnait dans son activitéla plus importante : la recherche. Monexpérience dans le Conseil m’a servi com-me une préparation primordiale pour lefutur car j’ai eu la chance de travailler sousla présidence de mon plus proche collè-gue de l’Institut finlandais de Santé auTravail, le Professeur Sven Hernberg. Unede ses contributions les plus importantesfut le renouvellement complet des Statutset Règlements. J’ai aussi eu le privilège detravailler en collaboration étroite avecdeux Présidents, Jean-François Caillardet Bengt Knave, qui ont développé la CISTcomme association et ses activités de re-cherche d’une façon innovante.

En fait, je n’avais jamais pensé meprésenter comme candidat pour la prési-dence, mais au début de l’année 2003, jedevais suivre le principe que j’ai adoptépour les vols outre-mer quand le capitai-ne fait appel à un docteur. Je ne répondsjamais à deux premiers appels car il esttrès probable qu’il y a un jeune collèguebeaucoup plus compétent à bord. Maisquand il y a un troisième appel, il s’agitd’une question éthique. Quand Bengtavait fait son troisième appel, j’ai décidé

d’être disponible.

2003–2006

La présidence 2003–2006 fut exception-nelle au point de vue de la rotation de ladirection car après le Congrès d’Iguassula continuité reposait en grande partie surles épaules du Vice-Président Ruddy Fac-ci, qui a commencé son deuxième man-dat. En même temps, le Secrétariat de laCIST, qui était situé à Singapour depuis15 ans, a été transféré à Rome. Heureuse-ment, nous avons eu un Secrétaire Géné-ral très dynamique, le Professeur SergioIavicoli et, son organisation, l’ISPESL, afourni un soutien institutionnel très fortau Secrétariat.

Le thème du Congrès était « le Défide l’équité dans la sécurité et dans la santéau travail ». Le congrès abordait des thè-mes globalement actuels, surtout du pointde vue de l’équité. Après de très vastesdiscussions, la deuxième Assemblée Gé-nérale à Iguassu a approuvé les prioritésstratégiques pour la période 2003–2006.Le Conseil de la CIST a décidé de mettrel’accent sur les domaines suivants :• Risques biologiques y compris le VIH/

le sida• Travail des enfants• Services de base de santé au travail (en

collaboration avec l’OMS et l’OIT)• Santé au travail des femmes• Risques du tabac sur les lieux de tra-

vail• Travail informatisé

Plusieurs de ces activités avaientdéjà été abordées durant la présidencede Bengt Knave.

De plus, plusieurs objectifs pourdévelopper la CIST comme associationavaient été fixés :• Restructurer la CIST comme associa-

tion• Renforcer les alliances avec l’OIT et

l’OMS• Augmenter le nombre des membres,

en particulier le nombre des jeunes etdes personnes venant des pays en voiede développement.

• Améliorer la communication interneet externe.

• Se préparer pour les évènements cen-tenaires.

• Soutenir, faciliter et coordonner lesactivités des Comités Scientifiques.

La réalisation de ces objectifs a étéexaminée lors de la réunion de mi-man-dat du Conseil en 2005 et dans la réuniondu Conseil à Milan en 2006.

Une caractéristique unique de la pé-riode 2003–2006 fut la préparation desévènements centenaires lors du Congrèsde Milan, berceau de la CIST. Le Comitécentenaire a planifié un grand nombred’évènements pour fêter l’occasion. Lesorganisateurs italiens, sous la directiondu Professeur Vito Foa avec le soutien duSecrétaire Général Sergio Iavicoli, ont étéresponsables de l’organisation pratique.

Lors de la cérémonie d’ouverture ducongrès de Milan, l’Assemblée a approu-vé et la direction a signé la DéclarationCentenaire qui fait appel à tous les ac-teurs pour faire des efforts afin d’amélio-rer les conditions de travail, la santé, lasécurité et le bien-être au travail et garan-tir des services de santé au travail à tousles travailleurs du monde.

Les collègues italiens de la CISTavaient fait un formidable travail pourrédiger un Thésaurus contenant toutes lesprésentations de tous les congrès sous ladirection du Professeur Antonio Colom-bi, l’Université de Milan, ainsi qu’un CD-ROM sur l’héritage historique de la CISTsous la direction du Professeur Sergio Ia-vicoli, ISPESL, Rome. Le CD-ROM a étédistribué à tous les participants.

Le programme social des célébra-tions centenaires était également impres-

Résumé en français

sionant, partuculièrement le spectacle spé-cial de La Scala et le dîner dans la FieraMilano. Le programme scientifique étaitplanifié et organisé sous la direction duProfesseur Pier-Alberto Bertazzi.

2006–2009

La dernière période triennale du premiercentenaire de la CIST peut être considéréecomme réussie. Elle constitue un bonpoint de départ pour le deuxième cente-naire. La deuxième Assemblée Générale àMilan (Italie) a approuvé les prioritésstratégiques pour 2006–2009 qui étaienten partie la continuation des activités dela période précédente, bien que quelquesnouveaux thèmes y étaient inclus. Les prio-rités étaient divisées en deux catégories :celles liées aux défis de la santé au travailet celles nécessaires au développement dela CIST. La réunion de mi-mandat enmars 2008 a évalué le progrès dans toutesles priorités et a fait quelques modifica-tions importantes au Règlement de laCIST.

Je voudrais mentionner, en partu-culier, trois résultats imports de la pério-de triennale 2006–2009 :· Contribution de la CIST à la conven-

tion cadre de l’OIT et au plan d’actionmondial sur la santé des travailleursde l’OMS.

· La CIST a été invitée à contribuer à larédaction de la déclaration de Séoul surla sécurité et la santé au travail et àparticiper au Sommet mondial deSéoul.

· Contribution de la CIST au Congrèsmondial sur la sécurité et la santé autravail organisé par l’Association in-ternationale de la sécurité sociale et del’Organisation International du Tra-vail.

La période triennale a fini par leCongrès de Cape Town en Afrique du Suddu 22 au 27 mars 2009. Dans la séance declôture, j’ai eu l’honneur de faire un som-

maire sur les résultats scientifiques duCongrès. Mes conclusions ont été les sui-vantes :1. En grande partie, les pays industriali-

sés et les pays en voie de développe-ment partagent les mêmes problèmesdans le domaine de la santé au travail.

2. Traditionnellement la recherche a duretard par rapport aux problèmes dela vie de travail. La recherche devraitêtre plus proactive.

3. Le champ d’application de la santé autravail est en expansion.

4. Les modèles de morbidité sont en trainde changer.

5. La portée de la recherche sur la santéau travail doit être élargie et prendreen compte la morbidité liée au travail.

6. Un grand nombre de risques émer-gents a été identifié.

7. Les compétences des professionnels dela santé au travail doivent être élargies.

8. Il y a un grand fossé entre la rechercheet son application en pratique.

9. La collaboration entre les acteurs prin-cipaux dans le domaine de la santé autravail est inévitable et doit être inten-sifiée.

10.La recherche ainsi que les services ensanté au travail doivent occuper uneplace plus importante sur l’agendanational et global.

11.Le chemin de la recherche à la pratiquepasse par les services. C’est pourquoile concept des services de base de lasanté au travail est une initiative im-portante.

12.Le monde du travail global met au défil’éthique des professionnels et des cher-cheurs en santé au travail. Il est im-portant de continuer à développer la

dimesion éthique.Pour résumer le message principal

de mes deux présidences : l’importance dela santé au travail est aujourd’hui plusgrande que jamais et elle continuera à croî-tre. La santé au travail est un des plusimportants biens communs mondiaux.Nous devons donc nous demander ce quenous pouvons faire pour la CIST et ceque la CIST peut faire pour un monde detravail plus sain et sûr.

Les activités de mes deux présiden-ces ont été un résultat des efforts com-muns. Je tiens donc à remercier tous lesmembres de la CIST, le Bureau, le Conseilet les Comités Scientifiques ainsi qu’à sou-haiter à la nouvelle direction beaucoupde succès dans sa mission importante.

Professeur Jorma RantanenPrésident de la CIST 2003–2009

ICOHOfficers

ICOH Board Members

PresidentDr. Kazutaka KogiInstitute for Science of Labour2-8-14, Sugao, Miyamae-kuKawasaki 216-8501,JapanTel: +81 44 977 2121Fax: +81 44 977 7504Email: k.kogi@isl.or.jp

Secretary GeneralProf. Sergio IavicoliISPESLNational Institute for Occupa-tional Safety and PreventionVia Fontana Candida 100040 Monteporzio Catone(Rome), ItalyTel: +39 06 94181407Fax: +39 06 94181556

Email: seriav@iol.it

Vice PresidentMs. Suvi LehtinenFinnish Institute ofOccupational HealthTopeliuksenkatu 41a AFI-00250 Helsinki, FinlandTel : +358 30 474 2344Fax : +358 30 474 2548Email: suvi.lehtinen@ttl.fi

Vice PresidentProf. Bonnie RogersSchool of Public Health,University of North Carolina,1700 MLK BLVD, CB# 7502Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7502USATel: +1 919 966 1765Fax: +1 919-966-1765Email: rogersb@email.unc.edu

Past PresidentProf. Jorma RantanenEmail: jorma.rantanen@ttl.fi

Prof. Giovanni CostaDepartment of Occupational andEnvironmental Health“Clinica del Lavoro L. Devoto”,University of MilanVia S. Barnaba 8, 20122 MilanItalyTel: + 39 02 50320151Fax: + 39 02 50320150Email: giovanni.costa@unimi.it

Dr. Marilyn FingerhutOH Consultant2121 Jamieson Ave Unit 2109Alexandria VA 22314USATel: +1 703 5670987Fax: +1 703 5670987Email: mfingerhut@cdc.gov

Prof. Michel GuilleminUniversity of LausanneInstitute of Occupational HealthSciences Rue Du Bugnon, 19LausanneSwitzerlandTel. 41(0)213147420Fax. 41(0) 213147420Email:Michel.Guillemin@hospvd.ch

Dr. John HarrisonHealth at WorkHammersmith HospitalDu Cane RoadLondon W12 0HSUnited KingdomTel: +44 208 383 1514Email:John.Harrison@imperial.nhs.uk

Dr. Seong –Kyu KangOccup. Safety & Health ResearchInstituteKOSHA34-4, Gusan-dong, Bupyeong-gu,Incheon 403-711Republic of KoreaTel: +82 32 5100750Fax: +82 32 5180863Email: skk@kosha.net

Prof. Norito KawakamiDepartment of Mental HealthSchool of Public HealthUniversity of Tokyo7-3-1 Hongo Bunkyo-kuTokyo 113-0033JapanTel: +81 3 58413521Fax: +81 3 58413392Email: norito@m.u-tokyo.ac.jp

Prof. Harri VainioFinnish Institute ofOccupational HealthTopeliuksenkatu 41a AFI-00250 HelsinkiFinlandTel: +358 30 4742340Fax: +358 30 4742548Email: harri.vainio@ttl.fi

Prof. Frank Van DijkCoronel Institute ofOccupational HealthAcademic Medical CenterPO Box 227001100 DE AmsterdamThe NetherlandsTel: + 31 20 56665325Fax: +31 20 6977161Email: f.j.vandijk@amc.nl

Prof. Sheng WangDept. of Occupational &Environmental Health,Peking University Health ScienceCenterCenter Beijing, 100083P.R. of ChinaTel. +86-10-8280-1533Fax. +86-10-8280 1533Email: shengw@bjmu.edu.cn

Prof. Peter WesterholmUppsala UniversityDept. of Medical SciencesOccupational and EnvironmentalMedicine Ullerakersvagen 38-40SE – 75185 Uppsala, SwedenTel. +46 -8- 619 6972Email:peter.westerholm@medsci.uu.se

Prof. Thomas KieselbachUniversity of BremenInstitute for Psychology of Work,Unemployment and HealthGrazer Straße 2D-28359 BremenGermanyTel: +49 421 2182825Fax: +49 421 2184309Email:kieselbach@ipg.uni-bremen.de

Dr. Timo LeinoFinnish Institute ofOccupational HealthTopeliuksenkatu 41a AFI-00250 HelsinkiFinlandTel : +358 30 4742396Email: timo.leino@ttl.fi

Dr. Jorge MoralesCorporativo Procter & GambleElectrón # 28. Naucalpan53370Estado de MéxicoMéxicoTel. +52-(55)-5726 4230Fax. + 52 (55) 5726 4236Email: morales.ja@pg.com

Prof. Antonio MuttiUniversity of ParmaViale Gramsci, 1443100 ParmaItalyTel: +39 0521 033075Fax: +39 0521 033076Email: antonio.mutti@unipr.it

Prof. Mary RossSchool of Public HealthUniversity of Witwatersrand5 Gale Road - Parktown West2193 JohannesburgSouth AfricaTel : +27 11 7267833Email: barrym@mweb.co.za

Dr. Claudio TaboadelaPresident Scientific CommitteeArgentine Federation onOccupational HealthGeneral Enrique Martinez 934Buenos Aires 1426ArgentinaTel: + 54 11 45516652Email:ctaboadela@fibertel.com.ar