Investigating and analysing workplace clusters of diseases: a Health & Safety Executive perspective

Background Clusters of disease arising in workplaces cause concern among the management of the company, the workers affected and their families and friends. Chance is the most likely explanation for their occurrence, although a number of real workplace hazards have been identified through their obse...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Occupational medicine (Oxford) 2003-05, Vol.53 (3), p.201-208
Main Authors: McElvenny, D. M., Mounstephen, A. H., Hodgson, J. T., Osman, J., Elliott, R. C., Williams, N. R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological and medical sciences
Cluster
Cluster Analysis
examples
Great Britain
Health Planning - legislation & jurisprudence
Humans
investigation
Medical sciences
method
Miscellaneous
Occupational Diseases - epidemiology
Occupational Exposure - legislation & jurisprudence
Occupational Exposure - statistics & numerical data
Occupational medicine
Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine
United Kingdom - epidemiology
workplace
Workplace - legislation & jurisprudence
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Background Clusters of disease arising in workplaces cause concern among the management of the company, the workers affected and their families and friends. Chance is the most likely explanation for their occurrence, although a number of real workplace hazards have been identified through their observation and investigation. Employers have a duty to investigate such occurrences in order to assess whether some unknown or unidentified hazard is at work and to take the appropriate action. Several papers have been published over the last 15 years or so that set out a method for investigating workplace clusters of disease. Aims This paper presents the steps in the approach taken by the Health & Safety Executive in Great Britain. Method An initial step identifies the relevant stakeholders at the outset, in order to maintain a realistic expectation of what the investigation can hope to achieve and to open a dialogue. The main steps in the assessment are: (1) identifying cases; (2) determining the other parameters of the investigation; (3) statistically assessing the cluster; (4) examining potential exposures and assessing their biological plausibility; and (5) determining the overall significance of the cluster. The approach is illustrated throughout by examples.
ISSN:0962-7480
1471-8405
DOI:10.1093/occmed/kqg039