OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY RESEARCH IN NORWAY

The workforce in Norway (2.7 million) is employed in agriculture, forestry and fishing (3 %), mining, oil and electricity (3 %), construction (8 %), manufacturing (9 %), transport (6 %), education (8 %), health and social service (20 %), and other services (43 %). There are five different authorities in Norway having responsibilities over different branches or groups of occupational accidents and injuries. Their overviews of the annual numbers of occupational accidents and injuries, also the fatal ones, are more or less complete, mostly less. An overview is given of the development of the research on occupational safety made in Norway since the late 1970-ies. The oil industry’s need for improving the safety in the North See was an important driving force for this development. For the time being, research on occupational accidents is carried out in four geographical areas in Norway: Trondheim, Os i Osterdal, Stavanger and Oslo. Their activites are listed. The present situation is fragmented. There is no coordination between the various research groups; there is no national research program. There is very little research on the «normal» accidents in small and medium sized enterprises. The statistical overview of both fatal and non-fatal injuries is misleading. To improve the situation on research in occupational safety, this research should be co-ordinated by means of a national program and a national competence center.