The Centre of Occupational Health (COH) is an organizational unit of the National Institute of Public Health (NIPH). The mission of the Centre is to study the effects of working conditions and occupational risks on health of workers and to act as an expert body for the Ministry of Health in the field of occupational health in the Czech Republic. It collaborates with similar institutions at international level and since October 1, 1975, the Centre has been designated as a WHO Collaborating Center for Occupational Health.

Head: Beatrica Dlouha, M.D.

Contact:

Address: Centre for Occupational Health - National Institute of Public Health, Srobárova 48, 100 42  Praha 10, Czech Republic

Phone: +420 267 082 657

Answering machine: +420 267 082 942

Fax: +420 267 311 236

E-mail: chppl@szucz (cpl@szucz)

The COH consists of four working units:

· Unit for Chemical Safety

· Unit for Industrial Hygiene and Occupational Health

· Unit for Occupational Health Services

· Unit for the Assessment of Occupational Exposure to Chemicals

Nine national reference laboratories have been operating within this framework, (see below). Furthermore, the COH significantly contributes to maintenance of three nationwide information systems (registers) (see below).

The COH staff consists of about 65 members, about 19 of which are physicians with various specializations (occupational medicine, industrial hygiene, epidemiology, pneumology, neurology, public health, and general practitioners). About 46 other staff members are professionals in various non-medical specialties (toxicologists, chemists, psychologists, technicians).

The COH strives to cover a substantial part of the scope of the multidisciplinary area of occupational health, i.e. the issue of the influence of work and working conditions on health, prevention, health promotion, diagnosis, therapy and medicolegal aspects of occupational and/or other work-related diseases. The basic activity domains of the COH are: (1) participation in the process of legislation making, (2) research activities (3) reference activities, (4) expert activities, (5) monitoring of exposure to work-related risk factors and of the health consequences of such exposure, (6) health promotion, (7) education, and (8) international cooperation.