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Associated Expert Groups
Baltic Sea Network on Occupational Health and Safety
Introduction
The Baltic Sea Network on Occupational Health and Safety (BSN) is a regional network of ten countries around the Baltic Sea. The participants are the occupational health and safety (OH&S) institutions in Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Northwest Russia, Norway, Poland, and Sweden.
The Network facilitates the exchange of information among the participating countries and offers easy and immediate access to country information in the Baltic Sea Region also for users in other countries. The BSN is a forum for transmitting and developing good models and good practice guidelines, and for disseminating information on training possibilities in OH&S in the member countries.
Background
The Baltic Sea Network is an expert information network. Its purpose is to strengthen peer-to-peer networking and collaboration of expert institutions and respective bodies in OH&S, between and within countries in the Baltic Sea region. A major function of the BSN is to make OH&S information accessible through a user-friendly telematic information system (Internet).
The establishment of a telematic information network was agreed upon in a meeting dealing with the strengthening of occupational health services in Baltic countries, organized by the WHO Regional Office for Europe in 1995. The Finnish Institute of Occupational Health (FIOH) has been appointed the secretariat of the network.
Tasks
The main tasks of the BSN are:
- Bringing essential country information in OH&S to everybody's reach by constantly transmitting up-to-date information in the Network data sources;
- Offering easy and immediate access to country information on the Baltic Sea region also for experts in other countries;
- Facilitating the search of information in keeping up links to other OH&S information sources;
- Transmitting and developing good models and good practice guidelines, and disseminating information on training possibilities in OH&S in the member countries;
- Creating permanent contacts between experts and OH&S institutions;
- Providing support to OH&S authorities when needed;
- Encouraging the countries to develop national networking arrangements in order to strengthen the collaboration between OH&S institutions and organizations;
- Developing the OH&S infrastructure within each country;
- Offering a framework and stimulation for joint bilateral and multilateral projects among the member countries.
Network Structure
The Network has a decentralized architecture involving fully autonomous national focal points in each participating country. Meetings of BSN country coordinators are held once or twice a year.
