Working safe means working in an environment where the probability of accident occurrence is small. Often, this is not small enough. In the Netherlands, approximately 7 million employees work in some 500,000 companies. Every year, 230,000 workers have an accident. This is more than 600 victims a day. One third of these victims are (temporarily) no longer at work due to their accident. Every year, eighty to ninety people die as a result of an occupational accident. That is almost two deaths per week.

Work-related accidents are estimated to provide approximately 5 to 10% of the total disease burden caused by working conditions. The bulk of the disease burden is due to chronic exposure to harmful substances, physical stress and physical factors.

Production, transportation, storage and use of substances can lead to risks at the workplace. The government tries to minimize these risks by regulation.

WebORCA is the Web version of ORCA (Occupational Risk Calculator). Based on the input of actual working conditions and duration of exposure to hazards, the model calculates the risk for various activities in the workplace or for different occupations.

Persons who work with nanomaterials may be exposed to them. RIVM investigates whether this may result in health risks. RIVM also closely monitors international and national developments in this field.

Storybuilder is a software tool developed for the Dutch Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment. It supports occupational and major accident analysis, investigation, inspection and identification of ways to improve safety.