Occupational Health and Safety Act, 1993 (Act No. 85 of 1993)

Regulations

Regulations for Hazardous Chemical Agents, 2020

Annexures

Annexure 3 : Hazardous Chemical Agent Guidelines

Guidance on medical surveillance and biological monitoring

Medical surveillance monitoring

Important concepts

Purchase

Medical surveillance refers to the overall monitoring of employees to identify changes in their health status because of exposure to certain chemical agents. These monitoring activities are not limited to only medical testing. Monitoring activities also include the monitoring and analysis of the individual and group outcome data, including historical data, derived from the medical testing.

Medical testing, therefore, is that aspect of medical surveillance that involves the use of interviews, questionnaires and standard clinical assessments to detect the presence of adverse health effects. This can also include tests like spirometry (lung function), radiography (e.g. chest Xrays) and laboratory tests (e.g. full blood counts).

Medical surveillance ideally aims to detect symptoms or a disease at an early subclinical or pre-symptomatic stage to enable interventions that may reverse these effects or slow their progression. However, medical surveillance is also directed at established occupational disease when the adverse effects have progressed to clinical impairment.