Specific campaigns on occupational risk prevention

In this campaign, the recommendations sent to the company are sent to the external prevention service, for information purposes, in order to improve company/external prevention service coordination and the integration of prevention in companies.

In this campaign, a joint IRSST/company/SPA meeting will be planned where the main preventive management documents will be analyzed and measures will be proposed to improve the integration of ORP in the company.

The prevention technicians of the Construction Unit carry out visits to the works where adequate advice and technical assistance is provided in terms of occupational risk prevention in construction works for both companies and workers.

The objective of this campaign is to raise awareness regarding the prevention of the indicated risks through the dissemination of specific publications to those companies that communicate the opening of a work center or the resumption of activity in construction works to the public. IRSST.

In collaboration with the Labor and Social Security Inspectorate, joint visits are made to unique works due to their size, historic buildings, new technologies used, etc. to monitor them individually.

The purpose of this campaign is to raise awareness about the prevention of risks associated with climatology in construction works. It is done by disseminating the following diptychs in the different seasons of the year:

• ·Risks of falling from height due to work on roofs in spring

• Risk of heat stroke in summer

• ·Risk due to the effects of wind and rain in autumn

• Risk of low temperatures in winter

The objective of the Tripartite Construction Commission, which is informative in terms of occupational risk prevention, is direct advice to employers and workers of SMEs and micro-SMEs who carry out works of little importance or duration. A technician from the Construction Technical Unit accompanies the commission in technical assistance functions.

The objective of this campaign is to promote the correct choice and use of both equipment for working at height and the corresponding collective protection systems to avoid the risk of falling.

The advisory and control actions focus on:

• Ladders. The objective is to promote adequate and safe conditions, use and maintenance of this equipment.
• Assembly and use of mobile lifting platforms (PEM), forklifts and construction elevators. The purpose is to analyze the conditions of assembly and use of these work teams.
• Collective protection against falls from height. The correct choice and supervision of security networks and edge protection systems will be taken into account.

The objective of this campaign is to promote the correct use and maintenance of temporary electrical installations on site and to provide advice and technical assistance on occupational risk prevention to contractors, subcontractors and self-employed workers.

The objective of these actions is to collaborate with Public Administration organizations and companies to improve the health and safety conditions of the construction works in which they are promoters. Direct and specialized advice is provided to employers and workers in the work centers involved, through visits to works promoted by entities and organizations such as town halls, public companies, ministries, etc. 

The purpose of the campaign is to promote the improvement of working conditions in the field of assembly and disassembly of stages for public shows. This is an activity that is carried out jointly with the Labor and Social Security Inspection. 

Advisory activities are carried out aimed at promoting the improvement of working conditions during the assembly and disassembly of temporary structures in public shows in:

• ·Events promoted by administrations or public entities.

• ·Fairs and congresses

This campaign focuses on advice and control on compliance with PRL obligations of newly created companies with risky activities, in order to achieve the integration of prevention in companies from the start.

This campaign seeks to provide special advice for the improvement of occupational risk management, in those companies that present serious deficiencies in their risk control systems.

Advice will be provided to companies in whose activity there is exposure to respirable crystalline silica dust (marble and natural stone), hardwood dust (wood carpentry), mineral oils used in motors (vehicle workshops, scrapyards) and diesel emissions (workshops). of vehicles and ITV). Likewise, action will be taken in those companies in which the presence of carcinogenic (H350), mutagens (H340) and reprotoxic (H360) agents detected in other actions carried out by IRSST prevention technicians is detected.

This is a specific campaign to control the quality of indoor air in buildings and premises in companies in the Community of Madrid, which allows action on the environmental conditions of indoor spaces that can give rise to effects on workers that affect their health. , comfort and productivity. Consulting activities will focus on "call centers", offices and non-industrial buildings.

Specialized advice will be provided to companies in which reports of occupational disease coded in group 5 of the list of occupational diseases of RD 1299/2006 have been issued during the year 2023, giving priority to sectors in which cases of work-related dermatitis in the year 2022.

Specific advice will be provided in companies where there is a greater risk of exposure to noise (boilermaking and stamping, drawing, riveting and hammering metal work, wood carpentry), and mechanical vibrations (vehicle workshops, activities where riveting tools are used, etc.). sealing guns, punches, drills, hammer drills, perforators, polishers, grinders, power saws, brushcutters).

This is a campaign in which prevention technicians from the Technical Unit for Occupational Illnesses participate with the support of those from the Technical Unit for Control of Exposure to Pollutants in the investigation of occupational illnesses. Understands:

Investigation of EEPP issued by the CEPROSS system

With the aim of disseminating the causes that give rise to occupational diseases and the prevention and protection measures for their reduction, visits will be made to companies that declare diseases through the CEPROSS notification system. Action will be taken in companies declared as having a high accident rate through the alert notices of the CEPROSS notification system, as well as in those that declare illnesses that are considered significant due to their consequences or due to the number of workers affected.

Investigation of non-traumatic accident reports issued in the PANOTRATSS program.

The investigation of those non-traumatic accident reports issued in the PANOTRATSS Social Security computer program that, due to their characteristics, could be considered as occupational diseases will be carried out. Special attention will be paid to the following pathologies: infectious and parasitic diseases; neoplasms; endocrine diseases; diseases of the central and peripheral nervous system; diseases of the senses; diseases of the cardiocirculatory system; Diseases of the respiratory system; digestive system diseases; skin diseases; and diseases of the genitourinary system.

Promotion of EEPP research by companies

With the aim of promoting the investigation of occupational diseases by companies, notifications are sent to those where an occupational disease report has been issued, reminding them of the obligation both to carry out the investigation of the same and to keep it available to the labor authority as stated in the Law on Prevention of Occupational Risks.

Actions with mutual collaborators of social security

The Occupational Medicine Service of the Technical Unit for Occupational Illnesses assesses the medical aspects of occupational illnesses investigated jointly with the doctors of the insurance companies with the intention of determining the causes of the illness and proposing adequate preventive measures in the actions of investigation of occupational diseases.

 Campaign to improve the management of occupational diseases

1. Collaboration campaign with the Unit for the Assessment of Occupational Illnesses of the General Subdirectorate of Medical Inspection.
   The Subdirectorate General for Medical Inspection communicates those cases of workers in a situation of temporary disability due to common illness whose pathology could have an occupational origin. The action of the Technical Unit for Occupational Illnesses consists of checking working conditions in order to determine a possible correlation between the pathology suffered and the tasks, exposures, etc. in the workplace.
2. Campaign for the correct classification of damage to health by the mutual collaborators of social security.
   During the investigation of the occupational disease reports issued in the CEPROSS notification system, deficiencies were observed in the identification of pathologies. This campaign is carried out taking advantage of the visits made to companies for the investigation of an occupational disease. In the event that errors are observed in the coding, a notification will be sent to the mutual social security collaborator that proceeded to issue it for correction.
3. Help sheets for the investigation of occupational diseases.
   The Technical Unit for Occupational Illnesses will prepare work-related illness investigation files to help preventative service technicians carry out this task.
4. Advice on the diagnosis of suspected occupational diseases to primary care physicians
   The technicians of the Medicine Service collaborate in teaching the courses that the Ministry of Health gives to primary care physicians to help them detect occupational diseases so that they report their suspicion

This advisory campaign complements the one carried out in 2021 called "remote work" focused on improving ergonomic conditions in "telework" positions and which ended with the development of a checklist for the evaluation of these positions and a video explanatory that allowed to identify the factors of design and conception of these workplaces. During this year, information will be collected from companies with this type of position and the questionnaire prepared by the Technical Unit for Occupational Illnesses will be published.

Between 2017 and 2019, a preventive advice campaign was developed for companies that declared reports of occupational illness or non-traumatic work accidents related to musculoskeletal disorders of the upper limbs in workers over 55 years of age. As a result, 182 notifications from the CEPROSS or PANOTRATSS notification systems referring to musculoskeletal pathologies of this profile of workers were analyzed. In total, 163 public and private companies were advised. During the year 2022, the report with the results obtained will be published and will be presented at a specific conference.

During the years 2020 and 2021, a campaign was developed with companies in the hairdressing sector and beauty centers for the prevention of occupational diseases that affect their workers. Specific advice was provided to companies in the sector that reported occupational diseases related to chemical agents (mainly asthma and dermatitis) or forced postures and repetitive movements. During the year 2022, the two advisory and dissemination guides that have been carried out will be presented and disseminated: "Hairdressing Personnel: risk of exposure to chemical agents" and "Hairdressing Personnel: ergonomic risks"

The Technical Unit of Occupational Diseases of the IRSST is in charge of managing the notification to the labor authority about the use of biological agents through deliberate manipulation, carrying out the verification of its content and specific advice aimed at improving the management of the biological risk, in order to reduce the risks derived from its use.

The purpose of this campaign is to review the preventive management carried out in companies that send workers outside our country, in countries with endemic diseases such as malaria, amoebiasis, trypanosomiasis, dengue fever, yellow fever, papataci fever, relapsing fever, plague, leishmaniosis, yaws, exanthematic typhus, borrelia and other rickettsioses.