CMNT_TITLE

Repetition

Article 2 of the Convention. Referring to the comments that it has been making for many years in relation to amending the schedule of occupational diseases annexed to Resolution No. 38 of 23 May 1959, the Committee notes the Government’s reference in its report to the imminent launch of a wide-ranging programme for the registration of occupational diseases and to the establishment of a new nomenclature for schedules of occupational diseases, in accordance with the provisions of the Convention. The Committee recalls that the schedule of occupational diseases currently in force does not cover certain poisonings caused by inorganic mercury compounds or, in particular, by organic compounds of lead (such as tetraethyl lead) or of mercury (such as phenyl mercury or methyl mercury), whose signs and symptoms differ significantly from those of lead poisoning or mercury poisoning; hence the schedule covers only a limited number of these signs and symptoms and not all of the pathological conditions caused by the substances in question.

The Committee trusts that the new nomenclature for schedules of occupational diseases giving effect to the provisions of the Convention will be established in the near future. The Committee also wishes to draw the Government’s attention to the fact that the schedule of occupational diseases included in the Convention has been supplemented several times (see the Workmen’s Compensation (Occupational Diseases) Convention (Revised), 1934 (No. 42), the Employment Injury Benefits Convention, 1964 [Schedule I amended in 1980] (No. 121), and, more recently, the List of Occupational Diseases Recommendation, 2002 (No. 194), which was revised in 2010) by new diseases whose occupational origin has been confirmed as a result of advances in scientific knowledge.