SS68-01 OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH MONITORING OF WORKERS EXPOSED, OR WHO HAVE BEEN EXPOSED, TO CRYSTALLINE SILICA

IntroductionFollowing the publication of the French National Agency for Safety, for Food, Environment and Work (Anses) collective expertise report ‘Dangers, expositions et risques relatifs à la silice cristalline’ in 2019, the Société Française de Santé au Travail, in partnership with the Société de Pneumologie de Langue Française, the Société Française de Radiologie, and the Société Nationale Française de Médecine Interne, wished to draw up recommendations for good practice on the medical survey of workers exposed, or who have been exposed, to crystalline silica (CS). Materials and MethodsThese recommendations for good practice were drafted using the ‘Recommendation for Clinical Practice’ method recommended by the French National Authority for Occupational Health (HAS). ResultsThese statements have made it possible to describe the occupational situations currently exposing workers to CS, and the diseases likely to be caused or aggravated by exposure to CS, to discuss the arguments including exposure characteristics currently available for proposing or not screening for each of the diseases caused by exposure to CS, the tools or examinations recommended for such screening, in particular the use of chest X-rays, to present the objectives and the schedule of the medical monitoring, the methods of primary prevention and finally to determine the research priorities to be promoted to optimize medical monitoring of populations exposed, or having been exposed, to CS. ConclusionsThis best practice recommendation has been awarded the HAS label, and are now progressively used in practice by occupational health services.