Medical screening and biological monitoring for the effects of exposure in the workplace. Screening and monitoring: tools for prevention.

The mission of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) is the prevention of work-related diseases and injuries. Medical screening and biological monitoring are recognized as important tools of prevention; however, the number of complex and sophisticated tests available has created new problems of choice in this field. Many of these tests have no relevance to preventing work-related diseases or injuries. To provide important guidelines in this area, NIOSH has identified the ten leading work-related diseases and injuries (Table 1). Several of these medical screening and biological monitoring techniques can be applied as tools for prevention. Within this framework, achieving the goal of preventing work-related diseases and injuries can be enhanced by collecting, analyzing, and interpreting information about occupational health problems.