The present manual tries to respond to the specific needs of occupa- tional health epidemiology. Rather than a comprehensive review of the subject, the book presents a series of articles. The first four chap- ters deal with general principles and definitions in occupational epi demioligy and describe the work-related hazards and diseases. Chapter 5,6 and 7 deal with information collection and the use of data in the assessment of health risks and in descriptive epidemiology. General methods for epidemiological studies are discussed. The following chap ters address specific aspects such as the study of combined effects, the statistical analysis of epidemiological data, the validity as- pects of epidemiological studies, including consideration on the pro- blems of 'false positive' and 'false negative' results and the basis for causality judgment or the particular interest of experimental epi demiology in occupational health. Chapters cover two special issues of importance to workers' health, namely occupational stress and the epidemiology of accidents.

This report is based on a survey of 32 Member States by the WHO Regional Office for Europe that began in 1983 and was completed in 1985. Information was collected from the countries' replies and from recent publications describing occupational health services in 21 countries. The survey clearly indicated the need to develop statistical and recording systems for these services in countries. Further, occupational health services in Europe are difficult to characterize as an entity because they vary remarkably widely between and within countries. Although occupational health services are better developed in the European Region than elsewhere, about 100 million workers in the Region still do their jobs with no services at all and another 100 million are covered by services that barely meet the ILO and WHO standards. In particular, some groups are seriously underserved.