Nationwide survey of occupational health activities in small-scale enterprises in Japan

Objectives: In order to clarify the real condition of occupational health (OH) activities in small-scale enterprises (SSEs) at the nationwide level, we conducted a questionnaire study sent to SSEs. We selected SSEs according to their employee numbers published in the in "Census of Workplaces in 1999". Subjects and Methods: About 2000 establishments were selected from the list in the "Census" describing the names and addresses of enterprises with 5 or more employees. The questionnaire included type of business, number of employees, independence, OH competent person, conduction of health examination, potential hazardous works and countermeasures (chemicals handling, computer work, etc), committee or other types of organizations for OH, and others. Results: Two hundred eleven establishments with 1-4 employees, 779 establishments with 5-9 employees, 681 establishments with 10-49 employees, 300 establishments with 50-99 employees, and 57 establishments with more than 100 employees, a total of 2,029 establishments responded to the questionnaire. The types of businesses (the number of establishments) were construction (216 establishments), manufacturing (604), transportation and communication (216), wholesale and restaurants (390) and services (602). The rate of independent enterprises was 54.1% and branches 45.9%. Indicators of OH activities including selection of OH competent person, enforcement of OH guideline for computer work, OH education about the occupational health risks, enforcement of special health examinations and general health examinations in SSEs with 1-4 and 5-9 employees were worse than SSEs with 10 or more employees. Conclusions: The differences of OH activities by scale of number of employees were clarified at a nationwide level. However, OH activities in SSEs with 1-4 employees were not clarified sufficiently. Various policies and methods should be established and implemented to improve the low level of OH activities in SSEs.