The role of an occupational health service is to assess health risks associated with a particular workplace and provide advice about control and preventative measures. The ILO has a number of recommendations regarding the provision of occupational health services. For example, the ILO recommends that occupational health services should maintain personal health files containing information about each worker's work, workplace, and exposure to occupational hazards. The service should be based on the principle of preventing disease and injury in the workplace. It must also consider the health and suitability of an employee to do a particular job. This enables the service to address a broad range of health problems and ensures an employee's health and safety. It can also support the management of sickness absence. An occupational health service should assess exposure to hazardous substances and evaluate the outcomes of that exposure. Here's a good read about Workplace Wellness Program, check it out! If the exposure levels are too high, the service should suggest controls to limit exposure. In addition, it should monitor for signs of overexposure and advise the employer and workers on controls. It is important that the control measures recommended by the occupational health service are appropriate to reduce the risk of exposure during normal operating conditions and during accidents. They should also be flexible enough to adapt to future conditions. The provision of occupational health services is unevenly distributed throughout the world. In Europe, for example, more than half of the workforce lacks access to competent occupational health services. In other countries, occupational health services cover between 5 and 90% of the workforce. In transitional countries like Central and Eastern Europe, reorganization of economic activities and the breakup of large centralized industries have posed challenges for occupational health services. The ILO recommends the establishment of an occupational health service that is integrated into an enterprise's productive apparatus. It should coordinate and collaborate with other health services and all other enterprise services. The service should have no barriers to communication with other departments and services. The ILO also recommends that an occupational health service should be an adviser in ergonomics, individual and collective protective equipment. In addition to assessing the health risks associated with a job, an occupational health service may perform general health examinations. These are voluntary, and may be conducted on all workers or specific groups. Some of these health examinations are geared toward screening workers for certain health risks and diseases. The objectives of these health examinations are to determine whether workers are fit for certain jobs, identify occupational diseases, and prevent injury. Occupational health services may also play a major role in the discovery of new health hazards. Through clinical observation and study, occupational health services can identify a causal connection between an occupational exposure and illness patterns. Kindly visit this website https://www.britannica.com/science/occupational-medicine for more useful reference.