The Central Government is in the process of framing a draft policy to cater to the issues related to occupational diseases, according to M. B. Pranesh, Principal Secretary for Labour & Employment, Government of India.

The draft policy is to identify and facilitate early diagnosis of diseases caused among industrial workers, especially among hazardous industries, as the Government is concerned about the increasing prevalence of occupational diseases in country's factories.

Once framed, necessary provisions of the policy would be incorporated in the Factories Act, mandating the factory managements to implement the required safety precautions to ensure health of employees, said the official while inaugurating a national workshop on 'diagnosis, management and medical surveillance of pneumoconiosis and related lung diseases in Chennai, organized by the Sri Ramachandra Medical College & Research Institute (SRMC & RI).

He noted that currently, the training imparted to healthcare professionals for identifying occupational diseases were inadequate, and this has to be seriously addressed with specialized training programmes. Suggesting that diploma and degrees on occupational diseases could be incorporated in the medical syllabus, he said sufficient number of doctors and other healthcare professionals would help to early detection of occupational diseases.

Some ESI hospitals in the country, like the K K Nagar ESI hospital in Chennai, have experts to diagnose occupational diseases, and employees should try to check their health status periodically, said the official.

According to N. K. Ganguly, Director General of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), an Indo-US study has been done on occupational diseases, and has recommended epidemiological studies to detect the disease at an initial stage.

Due to lack of proper data, only 15 cases of pneumoconiosis, a lung disease caused by dust inhalation, have been reported in India. Lung diseases cause the death of about seven lakh people annually in the world, said the ICMR chief.