Occupational Exposure Lists
Where there is a risk to the health and safety of employees due to work with a biological agent, employers must keep a list of the employees who have been or may be exposed to any or all of:
- Group 2 biological agents as specified in the Biological Agents' Code of Practice namely Human herpesvirus type 8 (HHV8), BK polyomavirus, JC polyomavirus and Human papillomaviruses.
- All group 3 biological agents.
- All group 4 biological agents.
List Contents
The lists should indicate the type of work to be done or being done by each employee and where possible the biological agents to which they have been or may be exposed. Records of exposures, accidents and incidents should also be included as appropriate.
The list should be kept for at least 10 years after the end of the last known exposure.
Where a biological agent;
- may cause persistent or latent infections;
- has longer incubation periods before an illness develops;
- results in an illness that becomes active again at times over a long period despite treatment;
- results in an illness that may have serious long-term effects; or
- causes an infection that in light of present knowledge is not diagnosable until illness develops many years later
subject to the risk assessment and the likely duration of risk to the employee's health and safety, the list should be kept for a longer period not exceeding 40 years following the last known exposure. The notes column of Schedule 1 of the Biological Agent's Code of Practice identifies agents where the list should be kept for more than 10 years.
Occupational exposure lists should not contain any personal data. Personal data is normally held in the health records associated with health surveillance and which should only be accessible by health professionals.
Information Availability
The information on the list which relates to the employee should be available to that employee. Employees and/or their safety representatives should have access to collective information from the list which does not identify information relating to any individual employee.
The list should be made available on request to the responsible medical practitioner, the Authority or an occupational medical adviser.