In Europe occupational skin diseases (OSD) represent up to 30% of occupational diseases. OSD related costs exceed 5 billion EUR/year in the EU by loss of productivity and cause extensive suffering for affected workers. Recently, the EU commission defined lacking prevention of OSD a top priority problem. There are isolated efforts in some countries; however, prevention programmes are poorly validated and there is no coordinated action between the stakeholders at national and international levels. Surveillance and diagnostics of OSD are hampered by lack of common monitoring of new allergens in workplaces. The Action aims to coordinate activities relevant for OSD prevention, including basic sciences (aetiology and individual susceptibility), epidemiological surveillance, transnational and applied clinical research. This involves regulatory issues (e.g. REACH), development of interdisciplinary workers’ education concepts, identifying individual susceptibility markers enabling tailored prevention and pre-employment counselling. This Action will allow setting up transnational controlled intervention studies in large cohorts in high-risk professions. The outcome will be evidence-based common European standards on OSD prevention and patient management. This will provide a safer working environment and targeted early intervention for workers throughout Europe enhancing economic competitiveness, particularly of small and medium sized companies.
occupational skin diseases - health surveillance - risk assessment - prevention - standards
