[Operative guidelines for the shoe industry: health surveillance].

Medical surveillance of workers exposed to occupational risk factors means secondary prevention and entails medical activities which are related to the assessed risk. In particular, the chief risk factors evaluated in the footwear industry frequently imply medical surveillance of exposed workers. These risk factors include organic solvents and chemicals, leather dust, noise, repetitive movements and upper limb overload, vibrations, manual lifting action and video display terminal operation. We consider some operative standardized and validated protocols for medical surveillance of these industry employees.