Occupational Medicine Centre,

Institute of Hygiene

Occupational Medicine Centre (OMC) – the national institution, responsible for research, training, expertise, consultation and information in the field of occupational health in Lithuania. OMC is located at the Institute of Hygiene in Vilnius, Etmonu str.3/6. 

Structure of OMC

Activity priorities 2007-2008

Following the new Bylaws of the Institute, new strategic OMC activity priorities for 2007-2008 were approved:

·         Research on the efficiency of implementation of the occupational health policy and creation of the national occupational health information network.

This priority is based on the experience of OMC gained through the participation in the Northern Dimension Partnership project, coordinated by the Ministry of Health, the aim of which is to enhance occupational health services both in Lithuania and other countries of the region, as well as its contribution to the creation of the telematic information network of the Baltic Sea Region.

·         Research on the effects of asbestos and other carcinogens in working environment and on the impact of psychosocial risk factors.

This priority is based on the competence of the OMC and Laboratory of Chemical Hazards Investigation of Institute in carrying out research on the effects of asbestos and stress on workers’ health as well as implementing the measures planned in the Government’s Annual Programme for 2006-2008.

·         Research on the prevalence of occupational diseases and elaboration of diagnostic criteria.

This priority is based on the data and the experience of the National Registre of Occupational Diseases at OMC in research and plans to participate in the elaboration of diagnostic criteria.

·         Research and assessment of occupational risks due to chemical and physical factors in working environment.

This priority is based on the experience and expertise of the OMC Laboratory of Chemical Hazards Investigation of Institute in performing expert tests for companies, institutions and organisations in compliance with the requirements set forth in the Rules for Occupational Risk Assessment.

Background information

OMC was established at the Institute of Hygiene in 12^th of October 1992. Since establishment along 15 years of activities OMC act as a multidisciplinary team of scientists, experts and laboratory professionals focussed on research, training, expertise and information on occupational health. From the early beginning of OMC activities the particular attention was payed to ensure the professional qualifications of staff. OMC personnel have arised their professionall qualification in the courses of the Nordic Institute for Advanced Training in Occupational Health (NIVA), Upsalla uviversity, “Brimhealth”, “Eurotox”, “Phare” projects aswell as in the occupational health institutes in Scandinavian countries, Germany, Belgium, France and Poland. 

In the year 1993 OMC have initiated establishment of Central occupational medicine expertise commission and first international project for the strengthening of occupational health in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. 

In the year 1994 the National Registry of occupational diseases was established in OMC and publishing of scientific monographs series “Occupational Medicine” started. 

In the year 1995 OMC laboratories became first state laboratories in Lithuania certified for chemical and physical hazards investigation for the occupational risk assessment at workplaces and are taking part in the inter-laboratory quality assurance programmes with the research laboratories in Germany, Poland, Norway, Belgium and Netherlands. 

In the year 1996 OMC have participated in the preparation of the National Occupational Health and Safety Programme for the years 1996-2000 as well as of the basic national legislation for workplace risk assessment and notification of occupational diseases in Lithuania. This year postgraduate training courses for Lithuanian OH&S professionals have started.

In the year 1997 OMC have started with participation in BSN project, opened own website (www.dmc.lt) and hosted the first WHO/EURO seminar for OH&S in Lithuania. This year OMC in collaboration with Uppsala University started postgraduate training courses “Planning and reporting research in occupational and environmental health”.

In the year 1998 OMC have started with participation in EU Inco-Copernicus project “Comparative analysis of OH&S system and practices in seven European countries”. 

In the year 1999 OMC have participated in the preparation of Law on Occupational heath care and have organized first NIVA courses in Lithuania “Quality assurance and risk assessment”. This year first OMC doctoral dissertation “The functional state of the cardiovascular system depending on psychosocial stressors at work” successfully passed the adoption.

In the year 2000 OMC have started with participation in PHARE “Twinning” project for the strengthening the enforcement of Lithuanian OH&S policy implementation and take active participation in the process of the harmonization of Lithuanian OH&S legislation with EU directives. 

In the year 2001 OMC successfully finished an international project on “Health assessment of the medical staff handling disinfection chemicals in the operating theatres of hospitals in Lithuania”.

In the year 2002 OMC have participated in the preparation of the National Occupational Health and Safety Programme for the years 2002-2004 and have successfully finished a participation in the National research programme for the evaluation of impact of orimulsion products on workers health.

In the year 2003 OMC started with participation in EU project “Employment, working conditions and SME: what kind of corporate social responsibilities?” and have opened the postgraduate training courses on research planning in occupational health for Lithuanian OH&S professionals.

In the year 2004 OMC have successfully finished a research project on studying the relationship between psychosocial work stressors and depression of workers of different occupations.

In the year 2005 OMC started with participation in EU projects on “The development of occupational health and safety training programmes in Lithuania“ and “Improving trade union health and safety capacities in the construction, forestry and woodworking sectors in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.

In the year 2006 OMC have successfully finished a research project on retrospective assesment of occupational asbestos exposure among respiratory cancer patients in Lithuania and started with participation in EU Leonardo da Vinci project on "The development of professional education Standard, quality criteria and training tools package on safe work with asbestos". 

Research activities

The research activities of OMC aims to produce new scientific data to be utilized for improving the work environment and promoting workers health. Since 1994 OMC, as the expert institution, provide consultations for Lithuanian safety and health (tripartite) commission, which exams actual problems of health and safety at work and hold out the proposals for the state bodies for it’s implementation. The research of OMC concentrates on occupational risk assessment and prevention of work related injuries.

In the research area of occupational risk assessment during the 15 years period it was conducted over 20 different research projects. It was evaluated working conditions and health of metal processing industry workers (1993), prevalence rate and relative risk of work-related diseases among paper-mill plant workers (1994), working environment and health of national TV and Radio workers (1994), occupational risk of diseases and industrial traumas among meat processing plant workers (1995), occupational risk of cancer among petroleum-refining factory workers (1995-1996), occupational risk factors of bronchial asthma among the Vilnius city population (1995-1996), impact of occupational stress to cardiovascular function of employees of different occupations (1994-1997), prevalence of musculoskeletal complaints among spinning industry workers (1996), prevalence of clinical syndromes among vibration disease patients (1997), hearing loss among textile and woven industry workers (1997), factors causing changes in the working ability index for employees of state public health care institutions (1998), sensitivity and specificity of the method for determination of hearing impairment among the employees exposed to noise at work (1998-1999), working ability of workers in Lithuanian enterprises (1999-2000), working conditions and health of the hospital staff handling chemical disinfectants (2000-2001), musculoskeletal disorders among workers exposed with whole body and hand-transmitted vibration (2000-2001), working conditions and health of Vilnius public transport drivers (2000-2001), prevalence of health complaints among mobile phone users (2002-2003), prevalence of diseases, caused by industrial accident in Lithuanian enterprise of chemical production (2002-2004), impact of psychosocial work stressors to the depressive state and clinical diagnosed depression among employees of different occupations (2002-2004), retrospective assessment of occupational asbestos exposure among lung cancer and mesothelioma patients (2003-2005).

The main outputs of OMC research projects, mentioned above, were published in Lithuanian (“Acta Medica Lituanica”; “Visuomenės sveikata”; “Medicinos Teorija ir Praktika”, “Medicina”) and foreign (“Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment and Health”; “Occupational and Environmental Medicine”; “Annals of Occupational Hygiene”; “Indoor Built Environment”; “International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health”; “American journal of industrial medicine”) scientific journals, aswell as in the set of scientific works of Occupational Medicine Centre. 

The research undertakings have stated the scientific background for creation and development of the national occupational health and safety legislation, action programmes, regulations, state hygiene norms and methods for occupational risk assessment aswell as for notification of occupational diseases. OMC was the leading national institution in the preparation of Law of “Occupational Health Care” (1999), basic legal acts on workplaces risk assessment, on notification, registration and expertise of occupational diseases, adopted in 1994-1998 and harmonized with the requirements of EU directives in 2001-2002; national programme on occupational health as a part of state Programme on Health and Safety at Work for the years 1995-2000, which was adopted by the State Government in 1994; state investment programme for workplaces hygienic supervision (1995); safety regulations for work with asbestos (1998), lead and its compounds (1999), vinyl chloride monomer (1999); state hygiene norms on noise (1993), whole body (1994) and hand-transmitted vibration (1996), thermal comfort (1997), video therminals (1998), chemical substances (2001); guidance on hygienic evaluation of chemical, physical and ergonomical risks in the working places (1999), methods for evaluation of psychosocial stresors at work (1997,1998).

Information produced through research activities in OMC or elsewhere in the world was published in the seven sets of scientifical-practical works of Occupational Medicine Centre, Institute of Hygiene on working environment and health (1993),chemical safety at work (1993), occupational carcinogens (1994) occupational allergens (1994), research planning in occupational epidemiology (1995), stress at work (1996) work-related musculoskeletal disorders (1997) aswell as disseminated through out periodicals “Occupational Diseases in Lithuania” and newsletter “Darbas ir Sveikata”.

International projects

Within year after year OMC developments, the international collaboration has become more essential among OMC activities. By being active on the international projects, OMC is endeavor to effectively transmit the latest knowledge in occupational health from abroad to be applied to Lithuanian work life. In 1994 OMC in collaboration with Latvian and Estonian partners and active support of Finnish Institute of Occupational Health have initiated WHO/EURO project on “Strengthening of occupational health services in the Baltic Countries”. According to this project OMC aswell as another project partners from all participating countries annually present the Country Report for the elaboration of WHO recommendations to solve actual problems of health and safety at work. Since 1994 OMC have participated in WHO/EURO seminars with the Country Reports on national models and functions of occupational health services (Lodz, 1994), on national resources and needs for occupational health and safety (OH&S) (Copenhagen, 1995), on OH&S trends and indicators (Ryga, 1996), on OH&S information systems (Vilnius, 1997), on use of ICD-10 in occupational medicine (Geneva, 1998), on OH&S telematic information (Berlin, 1999). Elaborated WHO/EURO recommendations were used in preparation of Lithuanian Health Programme (1997) and National Environmental Health Action Plan (2001) to develop OH&S issues in Lithuania.

To ensure smooth and easy communication between Baltic Sea Countries OMC joined the idea of Finnish Institute of Occupational Health (FIOH) to establish a telematic network on OH&S. The website of the Network (www.balticseaosh.net) was opened in 1997. At the moment Baltic Sea Network on OH&S (BSN) is a decentralized arrangement between autonomous national focal points in ten countries around the Baltic Sea, namely Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Northwest Russia, Norway, Poland and Sweden. OMC as national focal point of Lithuania have opened Lithuanian homepage (www.dmc.lt) to the network in 1998 and is responsible for the content and quality of the information on own pages. The basic structure of BSN www-pages has been standardized and has the following main categories: contact information, OH&S organizational profiles, OH&S information sources, information by subject areas, news and activities, training courses and conferences, legislation. Once a year Coordinator Meeting for national decision-makers and webmasters to discuss and exchange views about technical and operational issues of the Network and agree on guidelines for BSN improving. On the basis of successful collaboration with FIOH a joint publication “Work and health country profiles of twenty-two Europeran countries” (2002) was elaborated.

Taking into account the different possible ways used in foreign countries to achieve the same targets in occupational health, OMC started activities in EU projects. In collaboration with Estonian, Latvian, Czech, Finish, Belgium and Italy partners OMC in 1999-2001 have been participated in EU Inco-Copernicus project “Comparative analysis of occupational health system and practices in seven European countries”. Following the goals of this project, four research components were carried out, namely, a comparative analysis of occupational health systems, stakeholder’s standpoint for the situation of working environment and health, occupational exposure to carcinogens and workplace audits to evaluate occupational health and safety issues in enterprises. The main results of the project were published in the EU reports as well as scientific journals. In collaboration with Spain, French, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Belgium and Bulgarian partners OMC in 2003-2004 have been participated in EU project “Employment, working conditions and SME: what kind of corporate social responsibilities?” This Project was partly supported by the French Foundation for Human Rights at Work (special thanks were adressed to Dr Claude Emmanuel Triomphe, General Delegate of European University of Labour Studies, who made this Project possible for OMC). In collaboration with Latvian, Estonian, Belgium, Denmark, Germany and Spain partners OMC have been participated in two EU Leonardo da Vinci projects: “The development of occupational health and safety training programmes” (2005-2006) and “The development of professional education standard, quality criteria and training tools package on safe work with asbestos” (2006-2007).

The activities of OMC were positively evaluated by Germany and French experts in the frame of Phare Twinning Project „Strengthening enforcement of occupational safety and health policy“ in Lithuania (1999-2002). From the year 2006 OMC became the active partner in the Northern Dimension Partnership for Public Health and Social Wellbeing (NDHS) Project, which have embraced 13 countries (Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Germany, France, Canada) as well as several international organizations (WHO, ILO, IOM, EUC, BEAC, CBSS, NCM) have started in 2003.  Conference of NDPHS Ministries of Health was at 16 November 2007 in Vilnius and was devoted to the efficacy assessment and strengthening of occupational health systems in region‘s countries in order to implement the WHO strategy on occupational Health Care and following the ILO Convention No 187 (2006) on occupational health and safety.

Recent publications

5. Everatt R.P., Smolianskiene G., Tossavainen A., Cicenas S., Jankauskas R. Occupational Asbestos Exposure Among Respiratory Cancer Patients in Lithuania. American journal of industrial medicine.2007; 50:455-463. ISSN 0271-3586

6. Jankauskas R., Krisiulevičienė D., Chomentauskas A. Lietuvos statybos darbuotojų profesinis sergamumas. Visuomenės sveikata. 2007; 2(37):3-6.

7. Everatt R, Jankauskas R, Kuciauskaite A. Status of Occupational Cancer in Lithuania. International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health. 2006; 12:24-27. 

8. Pajarskienė B., Mackevičiūtė J. Bauginimai darbe viešojo administravimo įstaigoje. Visuomenės sveikata. 2006; 2(33): 84-89. 

9. Jankauskas R., Vainauskas S. Mobiliojo ryšio telefonų vartotojų sveikatos skundų paplitimas priklausomai nuo mobilaus ryšio vartojimo intensyvumo. Visuomenės sveikata. 2006; 2(33):59-63. 

10. Stanislavovienė J, Pajarskienė B, Jankauskas R, Miliajavienė J. Vilniaus miesto dirbančiųjų depresinių būsenų paplitimas. Medicinos teorija ir praktika. 2006; 2 (12): 169-175. 

11. Kalibatas J, Smolianskienė G, Adomonienė D, Petrauskaitė-Evaratt, Jankauskas R, Cicenas S, Tossavainen A, Vanhala E. Methodic Aspects In Determination Of Chrysotile Asbestos Exposure At Work In Lithuania. Visuomenės sveikata. 2006; 3(34):66-69. 

12. Pajarskienė B, Stanislavovienė J, Jankauskas R. Protinį ir fizinį darbą dirbančių vilniaus gyventojų intensyvūs psichosocialiniai darbo veiksniai. Visuomenės sveikata. 2006; 4(35):29-33. 

13. Smolianskiene G, Adamoniene D, Seskauskas V. Studies on occupational asbestos in Lithuania: achievements and problems. Indoor Built Environment 2005; Vol.14, No.3-4: 331-335.

14. Šurkienė G, Žagminas K, Veniūtė M, Rastakovas D, Stanislavovienė J. Visuomenės sveikatos specialistų profesinių žinių poreikiai. Visuomenės sveikata. 2005; 1(28):45-51.

15. Pajarskienė B, Stanisloviene J, Jankauskas R, Miliajevienė. Psichosocialinių darbo stresorių ir moterų depresinės būsenos ryšys. Medicinos teorija ir praktika 2005; 1(41): 55-59.

16. Jankauskas R., Einikienė A., Krisiulevičienė D. Objektyvių kaulų ir raumenų sistemos pažeidimų paplitimas tarp dirbančiųjų su vibraciją generuojančiais įrengimais. Visuomenės sveikata 2005; 3(30):13-17.

17. Pajarskienė B., Šinickienė I., Žagminas K. Vilniaus universiteto dėstytojų psichosocialiniai darbo stresoriai. Visuomenės sveikata 2005; 3(30):22-27.

18. Mačiulytė N, Jankauskas R. Lėtinių kvėpavimo sistemos ligų paplitimas po 1989 metų avarijos Jonavos “Azoto” įmonėje. Visuomenės sveikata 2005; 3(30):28-32.

19. Rūta Petrauskaitė Everatt, Antti Tossavainen, Saulius Cicėnas, Remigijus Jankauskas, Gražina Smolianskienė. Retrospective assessment of occupational asbestos exposure among 220 patients with respiratory cancer hospitalized at vilnius university institute of oncology. Acta Medica Lituanica 2005. Volume 12. No. 4: 13-19.

20. Jankauskas R., Krisiulevičienė D. Sergamumas profesinėmis ligomis Lietuvoje ir kitose Europos Sąjungos šalyse. Visuomenės sveikata. 2005; 4(31): 48-49.

21. Jankauskas R., Kučiauskaitė A., Krisiulevičienė D., Einikienė A. Sudėtingų ir konfliktinių profesinių ligų atvejų paplitimas, priežastys ir struktūra Lietuvoje. Visuomenės sveikata 2004; 3(26): 10-13.

22. Petrauskaitė Everatt R. Profesijos įtaka rizikai susirgti plaučių vėžiu Kėdainių rajone. Visuomenės sveikata 2004; 3(26): 30-35.

23. Pūras D, Povilaitis R, Stanislavovienė J. Skurdas kaip rizikos veiksnys psichikos sveikatos problemoms atsirasti. Psichologija 2003; 28 tomas: 50-65.

24. Pajarskienė B, Jankauskas R. Troleibusų vairuotojų moterų stresinės reakcijos dažnumas priklausomai nuo baimės prarasti darbą. Visuomenės sveikata 2004; 4(27):43-46.

25. Jankauskas R. Mačiulytė N. Musculoskeletal disorders among Vilnius trolleybus drivers according to the Professional work record and self- motivation of working conditions. Visuomenės sveikata 2004 4(27):61-65.