MoD Health & Safety Handbook 

JSP 375 Vol 2 

LEAFLET 5 ANNEX J 

MANAGEMENT OF HAZARDOUS SUBSTANCES INC. LEAD & ASBESTOS 

CONTENTS 

Para 

  HEALTH 

SURVEILLANCE 

 1  Introduction 

  2 

What is health surveillance?  

  4 

How do i know whether i should introduce health surveillance?  

  8 

What s the value?  

  10 

How is it carried out and who can do it?  

  12 

Where do i get help?  

  14 

Involving employees and their representatives? 

 15 

Acknowledgement 

HEALTH SURVEILLANCE 

INTRODUCTION 

1 

Some health and safety regulations require employers to provide health surveillance for their 

employees.  This annex briefly explains health surveillance, giving you enough information to help you 

decide whether you need to look further. The annex contains notes on good practice which are not 

compulsory but which you may find helpful in considering what you may need to do.  

What is health surveillance?  

2 

Health surveillance is about systematically watching out for early signs of work related ill health in 

employees exposed to certain health risks.  It means putting in place certain procedures to achieve this.  

These procedures include:  

2.1 

Simple methods, such as looking for skin damage on hands from using certain chemicals;  

2.2 

Technical checks on employees, such as hearing tests;  

2.3 

More involved medical examinations. 

3 

 Don t confuse this type of health surveillance with health promotion or general health checks.  

How do I know whether I should introduce health surveillance?  

4 

The starting point is your risk assessment. Through this, you should have found out the health 

hazards in your workplace, identified who is at risk and taken measures to do something to control the 

risk. Where risks remain, you will need to take further steps, one of which is to consider health 

surveillance. 

NOTE 

Health Surveillance is not a substitute for controlling health risks at work. 

5 

In particular, ask yourself whether any member of your staff is at risk from:  

5.1 

Noise or hand arm vibration.  If so, health surveillance may be needed under the 

Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations ;  

Leaflet 5 Annex J 

April 2003 

 Page 

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