[Activities of the National Information Center for Biological Agents present at workplace and preliminary analysis of data collected by the National Register of Biological Agents].

The National Information Centre for Biological Agents Present at Workplaces and the National Register of Biological Agents were established in the Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine in 2005. The former carries out consultation and education activities concerned with occupational exposure and risk assessment, planning and implementation of preventive programs and accurate registration of reliable information about the use of biological agents. The latter aims at collecting and analyzing the aforesaid information obtained from employers for research, diagnostic or industrial purposes. The data base is a source of information for occupational environment supervising inspections and occupational health service. useful among others in planning various forms of prevention. As of December 10, 2008 there were 281 notifications from companies using biological agents (for the following purposes: research--34, diagnostic--225 and industrial--22). The majority of notifications were obtained from different diagnostic laboratories and universities/ research institutes. In total, 2197 workers, including 2011 (91.5%) women and 186 (8.5%) men were exposed to biological agents, were registered.