New Zealand fails to measure occupational disease

A report released on Monday by the National Occupational Health and Safety Advisory Committee (NOHSAC) says that the recording of occupational disease in New Zealand fails to meet international standards.

"It is unacceptable that the various agencies responsible for occupational safety and health in the workplace are unable to accurately measure how many New Zealanders are dying or being seriously injured at work," says the chair of NOHSAC, Professor Neil Pearce, "and therefore have no effective strategies to reduce the death and injury rate".

"We’re right down there with the worst in the Western world," says Pearce, "We used to have really good records in the 80s but that has gone way downhill." For example, less than five per cent of people on the cancer registry have their occupation recorded. In the 1980s that rate was as high as 80 per cent.

The EPMU endorses the report’s findings. "Without any figures policymakers feel able to demote the issue because they have no way to measure it," says EPMU health and safety officer, Fritz Drissner. "First, doctors need to be educated," says Drissner, "they have no idea about occupational disease and they don’t even ask patients about it". Then there needs to be a system for categorising what they find and somewhere central to store that information. Only then can it be analysed.

Gathering this sort of information is being done for occupational injuries, with the exception of gradual process injuries, but not disease. "This sort of thing already happens for lots of other diseases, for example cancer, but it doesn’t happen for occupational cancers."

NOHSAC’s report finds six key failings with the current situation:

1. a lack of common definitions and coding of occupation
2. a lack of common definitions and coding of disease and injury
3. poor capture of occupational history particularly in relation to occupational disease
4. inadequate or nonexistent coding of the occupational history information that is collected
5. lack of expertise and resources to manage and administer systems, particularly within the Department of Labour
6. the lack of anyone "in charge" who can take responsibility for collecting, coding, analysing, and publishing information on the annual burden of occupational disease and injury.

The report identifies Finland as an example of international best practice in this area.

NOHSAC was established in July 2003. It released its first report, "The Burden of Occupational Disease and Injury in New Zealand" in 2004. Based on survey data, it estimated that there are between 700-1000 deaths from occupational disease in New Zealand each year and between 17,000 and 20,000 new cases of occupational disease.