The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Ministry of Labor, and the Taiwan Occupational Hygiene Association (TOHA) hosted the 2018 International Conference on Occupational Hygiene and health from March 7 to 9, which was kicked off by the roundtable at the KP Chen Lecture Hall, College of Public Health of Taiwan University on March 7, followed by the opening of the conference at Hungkuang University, Taichung. Occupational health-related professionals in industry, government, academics and research, including experts and scholars from the United States, Japan, South Korea and Singapore, were invited to share international trends and practical experiences.

Director General of the OSHA, Tzou Tzu-lien, gave the opening remark for the event. He expressed the gratitude to the TOHA and professionals in the relevant fields for their effort in promoting the development of occupational health in Taiwan and to the foreign experts and scholars, who are Dr. Thomas H. Gassert (professor of Harvard University), Dr. Doo Yong Park (president of Korean Occupational Safety and Health Agency, KOSHA), Dr. Kenichi Yamada (senior specialist of Japan Industrial Safety and Health Association, JISHA), and Professional engineer Li Yee Chow (president of Occupational and Environmental Health Society in Singapore, OEHS), for sharing the innovative practice and successful experience in occupational hygiene and health. Tzou also emphasized, “It is too late to pay attention when serious occupational diseases or accidents occur.” The safety and health in workplace has no national boundary. We can make our occupational safety and health environment much better through sharing, communicating, brainstorming at this conference.

“Effectiveness of Exposure Assessment and Risk Management” and “Psychophysiological Wellbeing and Burnout Prevention at Work” were the topics in the roundtable, all attendees discussed enthusiastically. Dr. Kenichi Yamada (JISHA) shared experience in performing exposure assessment and risk assessment in Japan. President Doo Yong Park (KOSHA) proposed that using the matrix concept model of reducing risk factors and exposure time to develop hazard prevention strategies. On the prevention of workplace violence, he suggested importing positive energy into organization to change the whole enterprise culture thoroughly. Dr. Thomas H. Gassert stressed the importance of data analysis in environmental monitoring and shared the experience in the application of the Integrated Occupational Health Index (IHS). On high working-hours issue, President Li Yee Chow (OEHS) addressed that the Total Workplace Safety and Health (TWSH) strategy as a burnout prevention management currently introduced in Singapore.

Director General Tzou, as the first speaker of the conference, stated that Taiwan need to face the emerging occupational health problems such as aging of workers, burnout, ergonomic hazards, occupational cancer and workplace violence in addition to traditional chemical exposure and hazard control. He also indicated that the government will reinforce the development of occupational hygiene and health in the future focusing on “Chemical Management- Source and Risk Management” and “Workers’ Health Services and Occupational Disease Prevention and Diagnosis” and propose the development strategies including: establishing a legal system based on risk management; using big data to strengthen occupational health supervision and management; enhancing the effectiveness of the monitoring and exposure assessment; strengthening the risk management of chemical hazards, the effectiveness of hazard control; urging enterprises to implement and upgrade the management of workers’ physical and mental health; enhancing the energy and effectiveness of the Workers’ health Service by integrating the domestic resources; increasing workers’ health care rates and provide professional assistance to SMEs.

The OSHA indicated that with the amendment of the "Labor Safety and Health Act" to "Occupational Safety and Health Act" on 2013, the protection object is extended from "labors" to "workers", and the amended act will gradually expand and improve the occupational hazard exposure assessment, control management and the protection system of workers' physical and mental health. The topics discussed at this conference are the focus and concerns of current occupational health governance. Through this valuable opportunity, we hope to enhance our professional on occupational health level and to ensure workers’ health and safety. We will keep all the summary and suggestion proposed by the attendees for future reference. We also hope to enhance the system of hazards exposure assessment, risk management and workers’ health caring service and create a safe, healthy and comfortable workplace environment under the joint efforts from the industry, government, academics and research.