The European Risk Observatory is based at the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA). It aims to provide:
By doing so, the Observatory intends (in particular) to draw attention to new and emerging risks and enable preventive action. These monitoring and forecasting activities are based (as much as possible) on the collection, analysis and consolidation of existing data from national and international sources such as:
Beyond the collation of data, the Observatory also provides more qualitative information to support the identification of new and emerging risks. This information is mainly based on expert forecast and research reviews but may extend to other sources, such as information collected by control bodies. EU-OSHA is responsible for the management of the Observatory and consolidation of data. External contractors and an EU-wide network of national institutes contributing to the collection and analysis of the data support the Agency in its mission.
Data sources
Data collection is based on existing, available sources. All data have been collected from published and online statistical sources. Existing tables and graphics are used. Not all sources present the data in a similar way or use the same breakdown criteria, so some data are difficult to compare. Where available, efforts have been made to use raw data sources, which are treated according to the expected output. This is, for example, the case for data from the European Working Conditions Survey (with regard to European and Belgian data), the occupational diseases statistics in Belgium and the Danish Work Environment Cohort Study.
Sources are both statistical and analytical background documents. The statistical sources are a combination of administrative registers and statistics (occupational disease registers, exposure registers), surveys, voluntary reporting systems and inspection reports. A global-risk picture can thus be presented by combining different data sources.