title: A model system for occupational disease surveillance activities applying Centers for Disease Control guidelines to poison control centers.
abstract: Each year, poison control centers (PCCs) receive more than 25,000 calls related to workplace exposures to hazardous substances. Recent studies indicate that each caller may be a sentinel contact representing other exposed or ill workers. Although PCCs traditionally focus their follow-up efforts on the treatment of the index case alone, with minimal attention to the public health implications of other exposed or ill workers, PCCs could serve as a national surveillance system for occupational illnesses, a system with both passive and active attributes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Community and Preventive Medicine, Medical College of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia 19129.
authors.forename: E A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Bresnitz
mesh_terms: D015386:Hazardous Substances / Q000506:poisoning*; D006801:Humans; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000139:chemically induced* / Q000517:prevention & control; D011039:Poison Control Centers; D011159:Population Surveillance; D012307:Risk Factors; D014481:United States
chemical_list: D015386:Hazardous Substances