[Occupational diseases--epidemiologic evaluation of the situation in Poland]

The incidence of occupational diseases is one of the basic indices of the effectiveness of prevention in the area of occupational health. It allows for the identification of jobs, plants and branches of the national economy with potentially increased risks for pathologies induced by working conditions. However, we should be aware of the fact that many of the recently diagnosed diseases result from long-term exposures experienced at work sites which are no longer under operation. The analysis was based on data included in occupational disease certificates. All sanitary and epidemiological stations throughout the country are committed to notify cases of occupational diseases to the National Register of Occupational Diseases at the Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine in Łódź. After a significant increase in the number of occupational diseases (8305-12,017 cases per year) observed in 1980-1998, its decrease has been noted in Poland over the recent two years (9982 cases in 1999 and 7339 in 2000). In 1998-2000, a substantial decrease in the decreasing rate was also found (from 117.3 to 73.9 per 100,000 employed), which means that the decreasing trend does not result only from the increasing size of the working population in Poland. In 2000 like in previous years, among occupational diseases the following ones were most often diagnosed: diseases of vocal organ due to excessive voice effort most common in teachers, occupational hearing loss, pneumoconiosis, contagious and invasive diseases, dermatoses, chronic diseases of bronchi, vibration syndrome as well as acute and chronic poisonings. There were registered 6626 cases of the above listed diseases, that is 90.3% of all occupational diseases. In 1998-2000, a significant decrease in the incidence of this category of diseases was noted. The largest decrease applied to the vocal organ diseases, occupational hearing loss and contagious and invasive diseases (by 30%, 51% and 40%, respectively). Neither in the member states of the European Union, nor in the USA, vocal organ pathologies are listed among occupational diseases. The main reason for this is an inappropriate medical prevention in the group of teachers and somewhat limited opportunity to teach them how to use techniques of voice emission. A decreased incidence of occupational diseases observed in Poland in 1998-2000 results partly from improvements in working conditions and partly from more effective prevention.