The Baltic Sea Network on Occupational Health and Safety (BSN) is a regional network of ten countries around the Baltic Sea. The participants are the occupational health and safety (OH&S) institutions in Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Northwest Russia, Norway, Poland, and Sweden.

1. Background

The establishment of a telematic information network was agreed upon in a meeting dealing with the strengthening of occupational health services in Baltic countries, organized by the WHO Regional Office for Europe in 1995. The Finnish Institute of Occupational Health (FIOH) was appointed the secretariat of the Network. The web-site was opened in 1997.

2. Mission of the Network

The Baltic Sea Network is an expert information network. Its purpose is to strengthen peer-to-peer networking and collaboration of expert institutions and respective bodies in OH&S, between and within countries in the Baltic Sea region. A major function of the BSN is to make OH&S information accessible through a user-friendly telematic information system (Internet).

3. Structure of the Network

The Network has a decentralized architecture between fully autonomous national focal points in each country. All institutions participate on a voluntary peer-to-peer basis, and are responsible for the content, quality and maintenance of their own country information. The focal points produce, collect, reposit and update the information on their pages in their national servers.

The following institutions act as focal points of the Network:

• National Institute of Occupational Health, Denmark
• Ministry of Social Affairs, Working Environment Department, Estonia
• Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Finland
• Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Germany
• Medical Academy of Latvia, Institute of Occupational and Environmental Health, Latvia
• Ministry of Health, Centre of Occupational Medicine, Lithuania
• St. Petersburg Medical Academy of Postgraduate Studies, Northwest Russia
• National Institute of Occupational Health, Norway
• Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine, Poland
• National Institute for Working Life, Sweden.

The regional main homepage of the Network is maintained by the FIOH. As a technical focal point, the FIOH gives secretarial support e.g. in organizing meetings, and technical support especially for the Baltic countries, Poland and Russia.

Regular meetings for Network country coordinators are organized once or twice a year. These meetings discuss and agree on guidelines and directions for improving the structure and contents of regional and national information, also from the technical point of view.

The Network supports the pre-accession activities of the Baltic and Eastern European countries to become members of the EU. The Network offers one forum for regional collaboration of experts in the field of OH&S in an integrated Europe.

The Network is an independent arrangement without official connections to any organizations and it complements other existing networks in the field of OH&S.

4. Tasks

The BSN aims at bringing the essential country information in OH&S to everybody's reach in constantly transmitting up-to-date information in the Network data sources. It offers an easy and immediate access to country information on the Baltic Sea region also for experts in other countries. The Network facilitates the search of information in keeping up links to other OH&S information sources.

The BSN is a forum for transmitting and developing good models and good practice guidelines, and for disseminating information on training possibilities in OH&S in the member countries.

In creating permanent contacts between experts and OH&S institutions, the Network can provide support to OH&S authorities when needed, and encourage the countries to develop national networking arrangements in order to strengthen the collaboration between OH&S institutions and organizations and to develop the OH&S infrastructure within each country. Further, the Network may offer a framework and stimulation for joint bilateral and multilateral projects among the member countries.

5. Contents of the Network www-pages

The Baltic Sea Network uses Internet technologies for information distribution. The regional main homepage contains information about the Network, links to international organizations, and electronic publications. It also gives access to each participating country's national homepage. Besides producing pages in English language, the BSN encourages the participating countries to produce and collect network information in their national languages.

The basic structure of the Baltic Sea Network www-pages has been standardised. Country homepages have the following main categories:

• background information
• contact information
• organizational profiles
• occupational health and safety information sources
• information by subject areas
• news and activities
• training, courses and conferences
• legislation.

6. Priorities for 2002-2005

1. Establishment of national, local and subject oriented networks

A national information network of OH&S institutions has been established in Estonia as a part of the Estonian Finnish Twinning project in 2001. The national network follows the same model as the BSN regional network, being a decentralized, peer-to-peer alliance of independent organizations. In addition to national network a local OH&S network of Tartu area has been established. In near future, an establishment of a special network of OH&S training institutions is foreseen, comprising about 40 institutions. The experiences in Estonia have been very positive and they can be utilized in promoting national networking arrangements in other Baltic Sea countries, especially in Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Russia, as a common activity of the BSN member countries.

2. Supporting the activities of voluntary professional and expert associations and expert groups

Numerous professional bodies for OH&S and their special groups are active and will be established in the Baltic Sea Region, including the national groups for ICOH, members of ICOH subcommittees, members of IOHA, IEA, European Occupational Health Nurses, etc. The Network can provide valuable information for these associations and serve as a link between the official bodies and professional groups.

3. Development of national and local indicators and profiles

Discussions in several occasions (e.g. WHO meetings in Europe and worldwide, Work in the Global Village Conference in Helsinki in October 2001, etc.) have indicated that the development of national and local indicators and profiles is a most topical and important task. The development work of indicators will be further promoted among the Baltic Sea Network member countries. Besides the national indicators and profiles a special emphasis will be put on developing and collecting information on local indicators and profiles.

4. Creation of substantive fora

Numerous substantive fora can be built on the basis of the BSN platform, including thematic issues and News from different countries. Such an activity would imply some new resources for the collection and editing of information

5. BSN as a contact network

The BSN can also serve as a contact instrument for experts in the region, e.g. to make inquiries among peers and colleagues on a new risk or new problem that has been detected. For example, the Finnish OH&S authorities had to generate in a very short time guidelines for protection against Anthrax. Such guideline could be distributed quickly to Network Members.

6. Documenting of the activities of the BSN

Documenting of the BSN activities will be developed. In addition to an Annual Report, this is possible in various other forms and connections, e.g. in the annual reports of the participating institutions, articles in journals, etc.

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