ABSTRACT
Public policy for preventing occupational disease needs to be informed by good-quality data regarding the population burden and the risks of ill health associated with specic exposures, occupations and industries, so as to target appropriate action. Investigation of trends helps to monitor growing risks as well as to evaluate their mitigation following intervention. Therefore, in many industrialised countries, systems exist to monitor the occurrence of occupational lung disorders. These include statutory reporting systems (often linked to compensation), voluntary physician-based reporting networks, mortality records, cancer registries and other routine data sources such as labour market surveys. With careful interpretation, most of these data can be used to determine the burden of occupational lung disorders including secular (temporal) changes and the determinants of risk. However, each has its own strengths and weaknesses, which must be considered when interpreting and comparing data from different sources. Matters such as diagnostic criteria, case ascertainment, data quality and representativeness all need to be taken into account. This chapter provides an illustrated overview of these issues.
