Baltic Sea Network on Occupational Health and Safety

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Baltic Sea Network on Occupational Health and
Safety

• 15 November 2007, Vilnius, Lithuania
• Suvi Lehtinen

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Baltic Sea Network on Occupational Health and
Safety (BSN), Nov. 1995-

• Network of OHS Institutes of the 10 Baltic Sea
  countries
• Idea proposed in the WHO Consultation on
  Development of OHS in the Baltic States,
  Copenhagen
• Network established later in 1996, three Baltic
  States and four Nordic Countries, and slightly
  later Germany, Poland and the Russian Federation
  were invited to join
• Aims
• bringing essential country information to
  everybody's reach
• a forum for transmitting and developing good
  practices
• disseminating information on training events
• encouraging the countries to develop national
  networking arrangements
• offer a framework and stimulation for joint
  bilateral and multilateral projects

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BSN website
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Social capital

• Concept of social capital - Robert Putnam
• Networking of friends, neighbours, social
  communities, civic society
• Norms of reciprocity
• Participation
• Trust
• Added value to activities

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Networking within BSN

• peer-to-peer
• voluntary participation
• facilitator needed
• equal
• information-oriented
• sharing information
• learning from others
• long-term collaboration
• trust
• win-win-win-situation
• basis for joint projects

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BSN A joint forum for exchange of information
and learning

• Concentrating on joint themes
• Receiving information
• Mixed participation among
• OSH experts and authorities
• Social communication
• Growing trust
• Platform for joint projects

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Accomplishments

• A network of OSH experts in the sub-region has
  been working for 12 years - Tradition of
  collaboration have been established
• OSH websites were created in the three Baltic
  States stimulated by BSN - they paved the way for
  joining the electronic EU Networks
• Smoke-free workplaces as a topic in 2004 an
  opportunity for WHO/EURO to inform about and
  discuss the issue and the guideline produced
• Learning from others obvious
• Making a situation analysis of OSH in the
  countries (Questionnaire survey)
• Meeting in Riga on 2930 March 2007 (Estonia,
  Latvia, Lithuania, Finland)
• SIHLWA meeting, May 2007
• Annual Meeting of the BSN, 3031 October 2007
• Identifying the OSH priorities
• Preparing a Policy Paper for November 2007 PAC
  discussion

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Topics discussed in Annual Meetings of BSN in
19962007

• OHS
• OHS assessment indicators
• Notification and registration of ODs and
  accidents
• Economic appraisal in OHS
• Education and training in OHS
• Twinning projects
• E-learning
• Country profiles in OHS
• BOHS
• Networking in agriculture
• Health risks of environmental tobacco smoke
• Psychosocial factors and stress
• Collaboration with other networks
• etc.

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ILO Framework Convention

• ILO Framework Convention was approved at ILC 2006
• Preparation of a National Profile on OSH
• Preparation of a National Programme on OSH

http//www.stm.fi/Resource.phx/publishing/store/20
06/05/aa1155885585766/passthru.pdf
http//www.stm.fi/Resource.phx/eng/subjt/safet/pub
li/publicateng.htx.i1229.pdf
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Basic Occupational Health Services

• 13th Joint ILO/WHO Committee on Occupational
  Health, 2003
• ICOH, WHO, ILO development of Basic
  Occupational Health Services 2005, revised in
  September 2007

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BSN a platform to implement

• A well-functioning network offers a forum for
  implementation - it should be fully utilized
• Several relevant topics have been discussed and
  analysed in earlier meetings of BSN
• Developing the situation analysis reports into
  National OSH Profiles and Programmes
• Basic Occupational Health Services
• Discussions and preparations for Joint Activities
  in OSH in Selected Sectors
• Funding possibilities NDPHS, EU, others
• Working together 1 1 1

10!