The use of a national information system for work induced injuries. A local and regional perspective

Linden, A.E., 1990. The use of a national system for work induced injuries. A local and regional perspective. Journal of Occupational Accidents, 12: 191–197.

The Swedish Information System on occupational injuries contains all occupational accidents and diseases reported in Sweden. Inaugurated in 1979, the system now contains over one million work-related injuries. Detailed encoding of each individual injury provides flexible opportunities for using the information to detect and prevent occupational injuries. In recent years projects to use occupational injury statistics at the local and regional level have been developed. Three of these projects are described in this article. Facilities for on-line retrieval of statistics concerning workplaces, makes it possible for the Labour Inspectorate to compare the injury picture for the individual workplace with the industry as a whole. The evaluation showed that the information provided useful documentation for discussions with company representatives. With the aim to activate preventive local work by employers the Labour Inspectorate take great importance to following up the measures planned in order to prevent a repetition of an occupational accident or disease. Labour inspectors derive more benefit, e.g., from being able to evaluate statistics for industries or occupational groups in a particular municipality. A software package is being developed in close collaboration between users and software designers.