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Report of the Eleventh Annual Meeting of the Baltic Sea Network on Occupational
Health and Safety
3–4 November 2005, National Institute of Occupational Health, Oslo,
Norway
Report by Taina Pääkkönen and Kari Kurppa,
Finnish Institute of Occupational Health
Executive summary
The BSN Annual Meeting 2005 held on 3–4 November 2005 in Oslo discussed
the current status of BSN, the future role of BSN and possibilities to
co-operate with the Northern Dimension Partnership in Public Health and
Social Well-being and other networks and organizations. Also, presentations
on the status reports of occupational health and safety in each country
were given. Psychosocial factors and stress at work were discussed as
a special theme during two half-day sessions. Special guest lectures were
heard on Norwegian national action and research programmes.
1. The BSN has a special role in the OH&S development in the region.
It continues to be needed as a regular forum for dialogue, exchange of
information, views and experience, and as a platform to launch joint activities.
The BSN also is a structure that enables linkages to other networks and
development programmes in the region, including the North-Western Russia.
2. The BSN Web system to be continued: needs to be streamlined with the
Bilbao activity; develop toward a portal; avoid duplication. Both webpages
have a broad scope of information, but the emphasises are different. BSN
webpages should include more information specific to the region. Also,
it was suggested that the information will be updated in order for readers
to know when the information has been submitted and when it has been updated.
The focal points need to be reminded to update the pages. The BSN web
strategy will be updated by the Secretariat and discussed in the next
annual meeting. The aims of the webpages need to be clearly defined. The
Secretariat will check visitor statistics, especially whether some regional
pages are more active than the others.
It was noted that summary reports of the previous annual meeting are
available on the webpages. It was decided that also some power point presentations
of this annual meeting will be included in the pages. However, no presentation
will be placed publicly available on the BSN Web site without first asking
and receiving from a speaker an explicit permission to do so.
3. Directory of the Baltic States OH&S experts as resource persons
for training activities in the region including North-West Russia:
• ILO/Moscow (N-W Russia project) in collaboration with NIVA
and the BSN secretariat will identify needs and propose suitable parameters
for experts
• the Secretariat together with NIVA drafts an implementation
strategy and required forms (this needs to be negotiated with NIVA)
• the focal points at the Baltic states will secure the required
qualifications of the local experts.
It was agreed that collecting the information for the expert directory
starts with the Baltic States, but the directory and the information included
should be planned in a way that will allow the directory to expand later
to include experts from other BSN countries.
It was agreed that Russian language skills are not the main criteria
for including experts in the directory, but the decisive criterion is
established OH&S competence. Experience and understanding of the Russian
OH&S situation and Russian language are further assets.
4. Topics of BSN interests: A number of issues of common concern were
identified, including 'low-resource management tools of working conditions'
(i.e., 'control banding'), 'basic occupational health services', and occupational
health from the public health perspective. It was preliminary agreed that
in 2006 in Tartu the BSN Annual Meeting will consider at least some of
these important topics.
5. Collaboration possibilities need to be sorted out with other networks,
programmes, and projects that are active in the region, particularly
• the Northern Dimension Partnership in Public Health and Social
Well-being
• the Northwest Russia S&OH Project (ILO/Moscow)
• WHO/EURO
• other.
It was agreed that the BSN is willing to collaborate with the Northern
Dimension Partnership to ensure that occupational health and well-being
at work are kept on the agenda. The BSN would be willing, in principle,
to consider taking a role of an OH&S expert group of the Northern
Dimension Partnership. However, further discussions are needed to clarify
what might be the practical implications from such a commitment for the
BSN.
6. It was agreed that the 2006 BSN Annual Meeting be held in Tartu, Estonia
in September 2006.
Minutes of the Meeting
Opening of the meeting
Session was chaired by Dr. Trygve Eklund, Norway
Welcome
Dr. Trygve Eklund, as the host of the meeting, bid all welcome to the
Norwegian National Institute of Occupation Health (NIOH) and to Norway.
Opening words
Dr. Matti Lamberg of the Finnish Ministry of Social Affairs and Health
gave the opening words. Dr. Lamberg reminded that occupational health
and occupational health care services are important to each European country
in order to develop as a nation and to guarantee wellbeing for all its
citizens. Work life is important part of everyday life. At the moment
work life changes rapidly and occupational health and safety experts and
authorities are facing many new challenges. Dr. Lamberg noted that Europe
was able to overcome the devastates of the Second World War and develop
into the largest market in the world, equal to USA. Wide use of social
dialogue was the social innovation that provided continuous positive input
that contributed to the gradual betterment of the overall situation in
the Western Europe. However, still much needs to be done and can be done
in order to provide all people equal wellbeing. In Dr. Lamberg's opinion,
expert networks are one of the key actors in the future development. Dr.
Lamberg wished all a successful meeting and that BSN network will continue
its good work and also seek new possibilities to co-operate and develop.
WHO greetings
Ms. Suvi Lehtinen brought the greetings of the WHO Regional Office for
Europe. The Regional Office has a special role in the BSN network as the
network was established as a result of the WHO consultation in 1995, and
was expanded in the following years to include all the Baltic Sea countries.
Ms. Lehtinen estimated that the role of the network is perhaps more important
today than has ever been realized before. She hoped that during the meeting
it will be possible to evaluate the 10 years of the network activities
and discuss the possibilities to co-operate with other networks. Ms. Lehtinen
reminded that we all have the same goal: to improve the work life, working
conditions and thereby workers' health. She wished every success to the
meeting.
Address of NIOH
Dr. Trygve Eklund, gave the address of the Norwegian National Institute
of Occupational Health. Dr. Eklund said that though Norway is not exactly
a Baltic Sea country, Norway is still in the Baltic Sea region and it
is most important for Norway to co-operate with the Baltic Sea countries
as there are many economical and social connections between the countries.
Dr. Eklund gave a short introduction to NIOH. The Institute is a research
institute contributing to the increased knowledge and practical applications
of occupational health based on biomedical and natural sciences. The Institute
is administratively under the Ministry of Labour and Government Administration.
NIOH has approximately 120 employees. More information on the Institute
can be found at www.stami.no and in the attached power point slides (See
power point slides, list at the end of this document).
Norwegian national intervention programme
Dr. Arve Lie of NIOH gave a short presentation on "Inclusive working
life in Norway – A national intervention programme" (see power
point slides attached). The national intervention programme was initiated
in 2001 by the social partners and government. It aims to reduce sickness
absence, promote employment of functionally impaired, and prevent early
retirement. Economical incentives are given to enterprises to promote
participation in the programme. Dr. Lie estimated that the programme in
parts competes with OHS, which are payable services. Sickness absence
has decreased. Dr. Lie judged that this might be due to general practitioners
now working in co-operation with occupational health services and companies
to solve the problems of individual workers. However, during the programme
prevention of early retirement has not been given as much attention. Dr.
Lie is not yet convinced that the programme will bring about new solutions
and he is still waiting to find out what the benefits of the project might
be.
Baltic Sea Network and partnerships in the Northern Dimension
The first half of the session was chaired by Axel Wannag, Norway.
Northern Dimensions Partnership
Dr. Lars Blad presented the Northern Dimension Partnership in Public Health
and Social Well-being (NDPHS). The initiative to establish a partnership
resulted from the CBSS (Council of the Baltic States, www.cbss.st) Task
Force to prevent HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis on 2000–2004. The partnership
was established in 2003 to find ways to co-operate to improve the situation
and to widen focus from the infectious diseases to non-infectious diseases/
risk factors. The initiative to establish the partnership was Finnish,
but Norway has carried much of the financial responsibility. Dr. Blad
is the head of the Secretariat, which was established in 2004 November.
It consists of two persons in Stockholm with CBSS, one assistant in secondment
in St. Petersburg. Sweden has had the chairmanship in 2003–2005.
In 2006 the chair will most probably be with Lithuania and Norway will
act as a co-chair. Partners are 13 countries (Germany is not formally
a member due to legal reasons, but they continue to work with the partnership)
and 8 organisations.
Dr. Blad told that the Secretariat receives many ideas for projects and
it tries to evaluate which could be implemented in practice. An important
role of the Secretariat is to collect information on projects planned
in the Northern regions in order not to duplicate work that has already
been done or is currently ongoing. Local background knowledge is needed
before starting a project, therefore information on the projects in the
Northern area and what has been their impact are being collected into
a database. The Partnership is intending to expand the HIV programme to
other Northern parts of Russia and to the Baltic States. More information
on the partnership is available at www.ndphs.org and in the attached power
point slides (list of attachments is available at the end of this document).
After Dr. Blad's presentation the interest of other European countries,
such as France, Italy and Spain, towards the work of the NDPHS was discussed.
In Dr. Blad's opinion the countries were interested to find out what sort
of practical solutions were designed to combat the HIV/AIDS epidemic and
to prevent new infections, and also to consider possibilities for co-operation.
Also, discussed were the statistics used in Dr. Blad's presentation; how
the data was collected and how reliable the figures are. Dr. Blad argued
that though the figures might not be accurate, they at least give a trend.
ILO activities and the Russian situation
Mr. Wiking Husberg and Mr. Roman Litvyakov jointly gave a presentation
on the activities of ILO in Russia. They concentrated on ILO Northwest
Russia OHS project and Russian OSH information resources. First, Mr. Husberg
gave a short overview on the ILO Moscow office and its responsibilities
and the overall OHS situation in Russia. ILO aims in Russia to improve
information dissemination on occupational health and safety issues, to
make real and updated information on the situation available to the authorities
and to the general public, and to improve the occupational safety situation
by setting up social partnerships.
Mr. Litvyakov presented the "Improved occupational safety and health
(OSH) system in Northwest Russia" -project and network of regional
OSH centres in Russia. There are five main aims: to improve accessibility
to accurate information on OH&S in Russia, to promote partnership
in OSH at enterprise level, to raise the awareness of the economical benefits
of good occupational safety and health management, to develop OSH management
systems, and to disseminate information. The key players and stakeholders
are trade unions, state organisations, employers, and scientific institutes.
Mr. Litvyakov estimated that good contacts with neighbouring countries,
such as Finland and the other Nordic countries, are important for finding
practical ways to improve the OH&S in Russia. At the moment, joint
training courses with NIVA are a good example of successful co-operation
within the region. With the training co-operation the aim is also to develop
training material on practical issues, such as risk analysing. Currently
the Russian training material covers mostly legislative issues and organisational
aspects. Also, important for the system development is to co-operate with
national federal organisations, such as the Russian Federal Service for
Labour and Employment. Activities are also being expanded to new areas
beyond the Mursmansk, Leningrad, and St. Petersburg areas. The main objective
of the project is to provide practical solutions, practical models, methodological
frameworks, training material for small and medium sized enterprises,
and to prepare a practical training package that can be distributed to
the enterprises.
The Network of Regional OSH Centers covers over 70 regional centers in
Russia. These include the 4 ILO/CIS information centres; two in Moscow,
one in St. Petersburg, one in Perm. One of the main activities of the
network is the Virtual Academy of SafeWorks (www.safework.ru). At the
moment all information is in Russian, but in near future there should
be some information available also in English. Also included in the webpages
is a database of OSH legislation and regulations. The webpages are much
needed, since legislative changes are common. ILO material is being translated
into Russian, because the language barrier is high among the occupational
safety and health personnel. Materials are also available on CD-Rom (Library
of SafeWork).
Mr. Litvyakov also presented other information sources in Russia. In
2001 Ministry of Labour started a National Russian Information System
of Occupational Safety and Health. An important action, since the country
is huge and there are many differences between the many regions. Ministry
of Health of Social Development is in cooperation with the Bilbao Agency
soon opening the Russian pages in the Bilbao network. Its is important
for the Russians to get information on the EU legislation and recommendations,
and on the other hand the EU countries to get information on the Russian
situation
Mr. Husberg summarized the ILO view of the situation in Russia. It is
important to co-operate with the neighbouring countries to learn what
has been done in the other countries to solve problems and what could
be adapted to the Russian situation. Mr. Husberg told that he has had
preliminary discussions on expanding co-operation with Dr. Blad and the
NDPHS. ILO's main concern is with working conditions and the partnership
is concerned with health. Co-operation could be done by sharing best practices
and tools for implementation with each other. Mr. Husberg asked if the
BSN network structure could be used more effectively in multilateral co-operation,
not just bilateral co-operation. The power point presentations are attached
at the end of this document.
After the presentation the Russian inspection system was discussed: it
has undergone many administrative changes and is now part of the Russian
Federal Service for Labour and Employment. Experts are trying to modify
the way it works from making inspections and passing fines, to a more
preventive activity. The aim is to have the focus on preventive work and
that the legislation will be implemented by other means than inspections.
Also discussed were the statistics. Registered non-fatal work injury rates
in Russia are generally much lower than the European average. There are
now plans for studies that would aim at finding out why the statistical
systems result in such large differences. It is quite obvious that there
is serious underreporting of non-fatal work injuries in Russia, just as
in the Baltic States. Inexpensive population surveys might be the best
method for assessing the true magnitude of work injuries in Russia so
that the decision makers could have more reliable information about the
situation. The occupational diseases situation is also being evaluated,
but due to the limited resources there are not many actions in that field.
Status reports from the member countries
Estonian country report by Dr. Eda Merisalu
Dr. Eda Merisalu evaluated that due to political changes some of
the positive developments in the OH&S administration in the previous
years were reversed: The Occupational Health Centre was dismantled and
now only small unit remains under the Health Care Board. Dr. Merisalu
gave few facts about OH in Estonia: Specialist training is offered in
Tartu and Tallinn. A new training programme was started in 2005 at Tartu
University. On the overall occupational health and safety situation Dr.
Merisalu commented that the number of registered work injuries has been
increasing during the recent years. However, the work injury rates still
are several times lower than what could be expected when comparing similar
rates from Western Europe. Therefore, underreporting of non-fatal work
injuries still continues to be a sizable problem. The situation with the
statistics of occupational diseases is even worse, for several reasons.
Consequently, the official statistics of occupational diseases at the
present are seriously at fault. Dr. Merisalu noted that 2/3 of the Estonian
enterprises do not asses risks. Typical problems at work places are ventilation,
lightning and the cleanliness of the workplaces. See power point presentation
attached at the end of this document..
Latvian country report by Dr. Maija Eglite
Dr. Maija Eglite presented the Latvian situation. No major changes
have occurred in the OHS system. Some legislative modifications are upcoming
in next year. A Twinning project to improve the occupational safety and
health management in Latvia is estimated to start in January 2005. FIOH
is a partner for developing the Institute. OHS strategy and national action
plan will be developed in connection of the project. Also, in the hopes
are that the Twinning project will help to improve the budget situation
and resolve the discrepancy between the resources and assignments given
to the Institute. See power point presentation attached at the end of
this document.
Lithuanian country report by Dr. Remigijus Jankauskas
Dr. Remigijus Jankauskas presented the changes in the Lithuanian
legislation concerning OH&S issues. The latest is the Assessment of
psychosocial risk factors (No. 669/241, 24 August 2005). The Institute
has co-operation projects on management of employee well-being with national
and foreign universities. The Institute continues to provide postgraduate
training. The Twinning project on strengthening capacities for implementation
of OH&S legislation has improved the legislative situation. National
Health Council has evaluated the implementation of Lithuanian health programme
for 1997–2010 and the report has been discussed in the Parliament.
The trade unions are co-operating in the Baltic area to improve occupational
health and safety. See power point presentation attached at the end of
this document.
Finnish country report by Dr. Kari Kurppa
Dr. Kari Kurppa reported the Finnish situation. Finnish Institute
of Occupational Health is reorganising into six centres of expertise (Work
communities and organizations, Human factors, Development of the work
environment, Health and work ability, Good practices and occupational
skills, and Internal services). The work in the new organisation will
start in January 2006. The organisational change does not change the basic
tasks of FIOH. Dr. Kurppa informed about an Interreg co-operation project
that FIOH has with the Karelian Republic of Russia to improve occupational
safety and health services. He also briefly described great geographic
differences in morbidity rates of occupational diseases in Finland.. Dr.
Kurppa introduced a practical evidence base that has been developed: A
web data base on regional working conditions in Finland provides support
to factory inspectors and other local experts in the field. See power
point presentation attached.
Dr. Kurppa's presentation was complemented by Dr. Lamberg's summary of
recent achievements in Finland from the perspective of the Ministry of
Social Affairs. See attached.
Norwegian country report by Dr. Axel Wannag
Dr. Axel Wannag gave the news of the Norwegian Directorate of Labour
Inspection. The organisation of the Directorate is being reorganised since
the beginning of 2005. The Headquarters will be in Trondheim. It will
have seven local regional units. The Directorate will remain as a governmental
institute under the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. A new unit
will be established in NIOH for making surveys on the work environment
situation in Norway.
A new work environment legislation has not yet been accepted. The draft
of the proposed law is based on a committee report of 2004. The Ministry
has made a legislation proposal based on the report to the Parliament.
The Parliament has given its recommendation. The proposal is now back
with the government to decide. The new social democrat majority in the
government will not accept the proposal as such and it is now being amended.
Dr. Wannag also commented the Inclusive working life project in Norway
that Dr. Lie presented earlier: Dr. Wannag questioned whether the project
has brought any real changes to the Norwegian work life. He remarked that
the project has not resulted in more elder or disabled people being in
the work life, nor has it given much attention to preventive actions.
The second half of the session was chaired by Maija Eglite, Latvia. See
notes at the end of this report.
Psychosocial factors and stress
Session in Thursday afternoon was chaired by Remigijus Jankauskas, Lithuania.
Stress at work
Dr. Stein Knardahl of the Department of Physciology at NIOH gave a presentation
on work stress theories. The reasons for stress need to be understood
before it can be managed. Most important for research on stress, or any
discussions on stress is, to operationalize the concept. Dr. Knardahl
identified psychosocial and social factors at work that influence the
experiencing of stress. For example, amount of work, quality requirements,
educational background, monotony, co-workers, and safety issues. Dr. Knardahl
spoke about how it is important to understand perceived vs. objective
control. As an example, Dr. Knardhal gave predictability of events (day
follows night, etc), which helps people to cope with events. The demands
and control possibiilties can be presented as a job strain model possibilities
(Karacek) where social support plays an important role. The imbalance
of efforts and rewards (Siegnist) at work create experience of stress.
Dr. Knardahl gave some examples of research that have shown causality
between experience of stress at work and diseases.
Monitoring of stress factors and psychosocial working conditions
Dr. Anna-Liisa Elo of FIOH presented on how to monitor stress factors
and psychosocial working conditions. Social relations contribute to the
experience of stress and affect the productivity of the workplace. Monitoring
tools should be practical and easy to use. This should not diminish the
reliability and validity of the methods. Dr. Elo distributed the QPS Nordic
questionnaire, which is a joint effort by Nordic experts. The questionnaire
has been tested among a group of 2000 employees. Dr. Elo also presented
IMAW, the Integrated Method for Accessing Workload (TIKKA). This is a
Finnish instrument for monitoring working conditions based on long time
FIOH experience for analysing mental, social, physical load, working schedules
and safety. Actions are needed when findings are analysed and problem
points are identified. Ethical aspects of monitoring were emphasised to
maintain equality (when planning, and informing the people on monitoring,
voluntarity), confidentiality, and impartiality. See power point slides
attached at the end of this document.
Work stress situation in Estonia by Dr. Eda Merisalu
Dr. Eda Merisalu Estonia entered in October 2004 a framework agreement
on stress, which in agree to give reports on the stress situation periodically.
In Estonia 35% of workers report that mental stress impacts their work
ability, also noise and indoor air contribute to the work ability. Typically
workers have more than 40 working hours a week, which affects other parts
of life. Chronic exhaustion is a major problem. In Estonia physiological
and psychological risk factors are included in the law, though there is
also pressure to modify the law. In Estonian national level there are
attempts to find ways to cooperate with the different actors in the work
life to develop methods to cope with stress. See power point presentation
attached at the end of this document.
Work stress situation in Latvia by Dr. Maija Eglite
Dr. Maija Eglite estimate that the societal interest in psychosocial factors
and stress at work have increased in Latvia. Nordic questionnaire has
been tried in Latvia, and an own special questionnaire for health care
workers and teachers has been developed. Dr. Eglite told that in Latvia
occupational stress has been studied through biomarkers. To work at stress
has been acknowledge is Latvia, future research projects are difficult
to arrange due to lack of funding. Also, additional awareness campaigns
are needed to influence the decision makers, employers and social partners.
See power point presentation attached.
Work stress situation in Lithuania by Dr. Remigijus Jankauskas
Dr. Remigijus Jankauskas gave an overview of psychosocial factors and
stress in Lithuania. The Lithuanian Occupational Medicine Centre has carried
out several research projects on stress in the past 10 years. Dr. Jankauskas
gave short summaries of the projects and their main findings. This year
a law has been passed on assessing psychological risk factors at work.
Dr. Jankauskas concluded that stress at work is becoming the highest occupational
risk recognised in Lithuania. The legal background is now provided but
the implementation of the law is difficult due to few resources and practical
implementation models. See power point presentation attached.
In summary of the discussion held after each situation report: it was
estimated that young people experience more stress at work because they
often have limited work contracts and are uncertain of the future with
the company. Also discussed were the lack of funding to the research projects
and suggestions for solutions: EU presents some possibilities. Implementing
the new legislation though training and certifying stress consultants
were also discussed.
Session in Friday afternoon was chaired by Anna-Liisa Elo, Finland
How to manage work stress and promote well-being: Lessons
learned from a case study in the Public Works of Helsinki City
Dr. Anna-Liisa Elo of FIOH presented how to manage work stress and promote
well-being. Dr. Elo explained that identifying stress reactions has advanced,
but there is a need for managing work stress. She presented a table describing
means for managing stress. Dr. Elo proceeded then into describing the
intervention programme at the Public Works Department of Helsinki City.
The City carried out the project. Psychosocial factors and leadership
were important factors in this project. The work sites were visited and
people invited to fill in the survey forms. Replying to the questionnaires
was voluntary. Each participant and work unit received individual feedback.
Dr. Elo shortly described the findings of the project. Clarity of work
goals and work climate improved. Supervisors felt that they got more support
from the higher level leaders. People expect changes, and will be disappointed
if nothing changes. However, health situation is difficult to change by
projects. It can be summarized that the overall results of the project
were positive. The program team became a permanent unit in the organization,
and they have to start new projects to improve the work environment. See
power point presentation attached.
German experiences (BAuA) in preventing stress and promoting
well-being
Mr. Eberhard Pech of BAuA gave a presentation on the German experience
in preventing stress and promoting well-being. Increasing workload and
time pressure resulted in higher levels of stress rising sickness absenteeism
and early retirement. Germany is going to implement a national strategy
on OSH including work related stress. Within the New Quality of Work Initiative
(INQA), which is a joint project of the Federal Government, the Länder,
social insurance institutions and the social partners, the prevention
of work-related stress is a top-ranking item. It is also worth mentioning
in this context that the Social Partners in the EU worked out a “Framework
agreement on work-related stress” in 2004. BAuA carries out various
projects on work-related stress. Mr. Pech presented some examples of the
projects: A qualitative study on success factors of alternative work arrangements.
An applied research project with a randomly selected group for a pilot
study. BAuA is developing a stress portal to be published on the Internet.
It is intended for OSH experts, researchers, decision makers and direct
affected persons. It includes latest news on stress research, practical
information packages and advice to individuals and to organizations. (See
Textual version and Power point presentation attached.)
After Mr. Pech's presentation the importance to meet the new challenges
of work life were discussed, as well as activities to find solutions for
preventing or coping with stress at work. The research project on alternative
work arrangements, i.e. telework, was agreed to be a good example of trying
to find practical tools through research. In general discussion topics
such like ILO's actions on preventing stress at work were discussed.
Group work on work stress – national policy and practical
solutions
Dr. Elo gave the groups the following tasks based on the means for managing
stress table that she has presented during her presentation in the morning:
1. group: Suvi Lehtinen, Eda Merisalu, Maija Eglite, Viking Husberg,
Arve Lie, Anna-Liisa Elo
Task: Using Dr. Elo's table to discuss what has been done to identify
stress in organisational level?
2. group: Remigijus Jankauskas, Roman Litvyakov, Matti Lamberg, Axel Wannag,
Kari Kurppa, Eberhard Pech, Taina Pääkkönen
Task: Using Dr. Elo's table to discuss what has on societal level been
done to prevent stress?
Psychosocial check ups have been done to identify stress in the organisational
level. On organisational level primary preventive methods were identified
as: constrictions on work time, official work contracts, improving job
content and control, improving balance between work demands and professional
skills, and internal rules for managing stress, etc. It was discussed
that on societal level there has been surveys to analyse and monitor the
situation, but there is no unified system for surveys or monitoring in
the region. EU and most of the individual countries have legislation that
cover risk assessments at workplaces but in most cases there are no specific
law on assessing stress factors at workplaces. It was agreed that awareness
of the stress factors and practical solution models need to be improved.
It was debated that awareness raising should start as early as in schools.
Proper legislation was seen as an important basis for starting to develop
practical tools and improve the situation in practice.
See power point presentations on the work group discussions attached
at the end of this document.
The identification of stress factors and their impact on workers health
and the economical results of the company were discussed. It was also
discussed that national stress prevention programmes and their impact
should be estimated and made public. It was debated that the publicity
would influence other companies to prevent stress at work. It was also
agrees that also problematic might be that the scientific research and
situation analysis (tacit information) do not meet each other. The hypothesis
used in the scientific research should be discussed with labour inspectors
or such experts who have a wide practical knowledge in the field. It was
concluded that not enough research is done on the stress factors and that
on national level there are not enough initiative to monitor the situation.
Awareness raising through various information dissemination methods were
suggested as a solution.
The final part of the meeting was chaired by Kari Kurppa, Finland.
Lung function and exposure to nicotine among employees before
and after the introduction of a smoking ban in bars and restaurants
Dr. Dag Ellingsen of NIOH gave presentation on the impact of smoking ban
in bars and restaurants. Comprehensive legislation on smoking in public
places in 1998. A total smoking ban that included also bars and restaurants
was made in 2004. The purpose was to protect the workers against the effects
of tobacco smoke and to improve indoor air quality. As a result of the
ban, a clear decrease in the dust contents in the samples of indoor air
taken after the ban compared to the samples taken before the ban. Dr.
Ellingsen shortly described the findings of the research project. See
power point presentation attached at the end of this document.
BSN – past, present and future
(Note that this session was held on 3 Nov afternoon, and chaired by Maija
Eglite)
Dr. Kurppa gave a short overview of the history of the BSN network: The
Decision to establish the BSN network was made in 1995, and the webpages
were decided to establish in 1997. In the early years the webpages were
an important tool for information dissemination on Baltic region. Annual
meetings and coordinator meetings in all member countries have also played
an important role. Coordinator meetings were set to help the development
of the webpages.
Dr. Kurppa briefly introduced the current webpages. The demands and needs
are different in 2005 than what was the situation in 1995. Problems areas
include: updating of the Web information, and increasing the information
content of the Web pages of the countries. Dr. Kurppa proposed that the
meeting will discuss the following issues: should the BSN continue with
the development of webpages, what sort of information should be made available
and how it could be carried out in practice? Ms. Pääkkönen
commented that much of the information that has been included in the BSN
web pages are now also available on the Bilbao network webpages. The Bilbao
has more resources and is therefore more active in updating the information
and better able to provide more information in English and in the local
language of an individual country. Ms. Pääkkönen suggested
that the BSN network would use the information available on Bilbao network
webpages, by providing links, and avoiding duplicating information by
developing the BSN webpages more towards a portal format. Dr. Kurppa suggested
that BSN could in the future work as a platform for more active regional
dialogue and collaboration between countries.
Group works: the BSN future and proposals for actions
The participants were divided into two groups to discuss the following
questions:
1. Continuation of the BSN
2. Future of the BSN Web sites?
3. The idea about a directory of the Baltic OH&S experts as resource
persons for training activities in the regim, including Northwest Russia.
- feasibility
- how to implement?
4. Which topics might be considered important from the BSN perspective
5. Other ideas for BSN activities
6. Suggestions for the site of an Annual meeting 2006
1. group: Remigijus Jankauskas, Roman Litvyakov, Matti Lamberg, Axel
Wannag, Kari Kurppa, Eberhard Pech, Taina Pääkkönen
2. group: Suvi Lehtinen, Eda Merisalu, Maija Eglite, Viking Husberg, Arve
Lie, Anna-Liisa Elo
In summary both groups considered it important to continue keeping the
BSN webpages. A plan needs to made to modify the pages. Dr. Kurppa suggested
that the Secretariat at FIOH would draft a plan on what kind of information
would be included in the pages, and what links should be included.
Annual meetings were considered important to discuss the overall situation
in the countries and the region and to share information. Outside funding
should be applied for, since the BSN has no budget. It was suggested that
the next annual meeting would be in Tartu, Estonia in September 2006.
Eda Merisalu was agreeable to the plan, provided that the funding could
be arranged. The participants were asked to check the national event calendar
and inform the Secretariat if there are national event coinciding with
the BSN meeting in September.
The compilation of a directory on Baltic state OH&S experts was considered
a welcome initiative. It was suggested that the directory should be expanded
to include competent OH&S experts also from other Baltic sea countries
and North-West Russia.
Topics considered important to be discussed in the future were:
• Indicators and profiles: - system, interpretation, policy-orientation
• National networking – co-operation, coordination
• Basic occupational health services
• Low-cost management tools of working conditions ("Control
banding", toolboxes)
• Management of ageing of the labour force
• Work-relatedness of diseases (cardiovascular, etc.)
• Occupational health and safety from public health perspective
• Work injuries: size of the problem
• Economic aspects (cost-benefit of investment in OH&S)
• SMEs, agriculture, informal, migrant workers
In addition the groups considered the following to be important topics
for discussion:
• Training of occupational health personnel: Defining the numbers
needed for OH personnel, systematic training modules, joint teaching materials
• Defining priorities for research in the Baltic Sea Network region,
applying for funds and using Leonardo fund used for developing training
projects
• Infrastructure for occupational health and safety, support for
development
• Work hours, a work environment risk factor
Please note that the minutes of the concluding session of the meeting
is summarized in the executive summary of this report (see the beginning
of this report).
List of power point presentations available:
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Background 
