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A growing interest in the development and implementation of preventive programs at workplace has recently been observed. According to the modern model of occupational health protection, recognition, monitoring and elimination of any potential risks at work are obligatory. This means that occupational health prevention also addresses the issue of psychosocial risks at work. There is a need of common understanding what the psychosocial risks are and how they affect human functioning to prevent them adequately and effectively. The aim of the paper is to present the present knowledge of psychosocial factors at work in a systematic way.

Background: This paper is composed of two parts, the first one addresses the issue of legal grounds for teleconsultation and telemedicine in Poland, the other tries to answer the questions whether the provision of health services with use of telemedical tools does not breach medical professional secrecy or personal data protection., Material and Methods: The material comprised a whole set of Polish and European legal acts that could have any impact on the legal basis of telemedicine in Poland. The method applied was of interpretative nature, and the texts of above-mentioned acts were thoroughly analyzed, providing the first comprehensive study on this subject., Results: The medical professional secrecy is not violated if the range of transmitted data is limited to those, which are absolutely necessary in the diagnostic and therapeutic process. This rule involves the transmission of indispensable personal and medical data, however, sharing the patient's appearance should be preceded by his/her informed consent., Conclusions: The achievements of information technology greatly contribute to the quality of diagnostic and therapeutic processes. Due to the rapid development of modern means of telemedicine we face the need to establish legal regulations, specifying the principles of distant exchange of medical data.

Exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMF) occurs when man is exposed to the effect of electric, magnetic and electromagnetic fields and contact currents different from those resulting from physiological processes in the organism or other natural phenomena. In Poland, the system of protection against EMF has been functioning for over 35 years. In 2001, when the Minister of Labor and Social Policy issued the regulation introducing the maximum admissible intensities (MAI) for electromagnetic fields and radiation within the range of 0 Hz-300 GHz, the system was directed mainly towards evaluation of exposure to EMF occurring in the occupational environment. The system is linked via MAI values with human protection in the natural environment. In this paper, the background, principles and the range of the national system of protection against EMF and its monitoring are presented. The project of implementation of EU directives, following Poland's accession to the European Union is also discussed.

Directive 2000/54/EC deals thoroughly with issues referring to the protection of workers from risks related to occupational exposure to biological agents in the European Union. The ordinance of the Minister of Health on harmful biological agents at work and the protection of exposed workers implements its content into Polish legislation. This paper reviews essential records of the ordinance: definition of biological agents; classification of biological agents into four risk groups according to their level of risk of infection; employers' obligations concerning the protection of workers exposed to biological agents. The results of Phare project supporting implementation of the directive in Poland regarding distribution of information on occupational exposure to biological agents among State Sanitary Inspection and occupational medicine service staff and employers are also presented.

The major objective of setting values of chemical concentrations in the work environment is to reduce the risk of occupation-related exposure to levels regarded as safe to humans. In the standard setting process, a critical assessment of the available literature data on toxicity of a given chemical and related health effects in the population exposed, depending on concentrations and exposure duration, is essential. Such an assessment performed by a group of experts is a difficult and responsible task since the available data are frequently incomplete and extrapolation of the results of animal experiments aimed at setting limits of concentrations safe to humans raises multiple doubts. The aim of this paper was to compare the procedures of setting permissible values for chemical factors in Poland and throughout the world and to highlight differences in their interpretation. In addition, a brief history of setting admissible limits, as well as definitions of hygiene standards used in Poland, the USA, Germany, the UK and in the former Soviet Union together with the ways of their formulation are presented. The country-to-country variations of attitudes towards setting admissible levels of exposure to carcinogenic agents are worthy of special mention. Maximum admissible concentrations of chemicals in the work environment suggested by experts and adopted by the state administration should not be regarded as constant and completely safe to the human health, thus the existing systems should take account of the need to verify these values with an inflow of updated information on chemical toxicity.

Exposure of miners to natural radiation in which radon-222 plays the major role has been studied in Poland since the end of the nineteen sixties. The work environment measurements and personal monitoring methods have been developed for monitoring the exposure. A quite wide range of doses resulting from big differences in radon concentrations in mines is characteristic of miners' exposure. It was estimated that about 16% of miners received doses above 5 mSv per year. This group of miners should be provided with individual dosymentry. In this paper methodological and legal aspects of the situation in mines are analysed. A large number of Polish recommendations and legal regulations must be changed in order to harmonise them with the directives of the European Union.

The paper presents a review of morality studies for workers occupationally exposed to lead. The authors highlighted the limitations which most of the reviewed analyses suffer from and which are due mainly to incomplete characteristics of the exposure in question. As follows from the results of morality studies carried out so far, lead-exposed workers are subject to an increased risk of death from stomach and lung cancer, though the epidemiologic evidence for the latter is not quite explicit. The single reports on the risk of cerebrovascular diseases probably concerns only the high-level exposure. Relatively best documented is the death risk due to nephritis. The authors believe that further research is necessary in order to evaluate delayed health effects of chronic exposure to lead.

The paper presents a brief survey of literature on the occurrence of byssinosis in the Polish flax industry. Moreover, the most essential conclusions from studies on the prevalence of the disease in the plants processing flax in other countries were presented. The need to undertake a similar analysis in flax industry in Poland was emphasized and proposals of problems to be included were presented.