National Centre for Occupational Health (NCOH)

 

Mission & Vision
NCOH aims to promote good occupational health practice and create awareness about occupational diseases in the workplace

About the NCOH

The National Centre for Occupational Health (NCOH) is primarily concerned with the prevention of work-related illness. It offers a number of services to provincial structures, occupational health practitioners, workers and management to support development of good occupational practice.

To help fulfill this duty, the NCOH has an ongoing publishing schedule which results in a wide range of information and research being published from across NCOH Directorates and Divisions each year.

The Centre is part of the Cluster Non-Personal Health Services of the Department of Health.

The main tasks of NCOH

Contact Details

For further information on the NCOH contact the NCOH Communication Officers
- Nelson Sesoko, Lincoln Darwin & Teresa Whitford at NCOH

 
Enquiries
+ 27 11 712 4600 (Tel)
+ 27 11 720-6608 (Fax)		 E-mail:
sesokn@health.gov.za
Whitft@health.gov.za
Darwil@health.gov.za
National Centre for Occupational Health
25 Hospital Street.
Braamfontein
Johannesburg
2000
South Africa		 National Centre for Occupational Health
PO BOX 4788
Johannesburg
2000
South Africa

The NCOH has three Directorates:

  1. Occupational Medicine and Epidemiology 
    (Epidemiology and Surveillance; Occupational Medicine; and Immunology and Micro-biology). 


    This Directorate has an occupational medicine and a dermatitis clinic and manages the programme Surveillance of Work-related an d Occupational Respiratory Diseases in South Africa (SORDSA).

  2. Pathology
    (Pathology Examinations and Histopathology; Electron Microscopy; Post Mortem Services; and Administrative Support). 

    For the purposes of compensation the Directorate performs autopsy examinations of the cardiorespiratory organs of deceased persons who have worked at controlled mines or works, obligatory under the Occupational Diseases in Mines and Works Act. It serves as a national centre of expertise in occupational pulmonary pathology.

  3. Occupational Hygiene and Toxicology
    (Occupational Hygiene; Technical Advisory Services; Analytical Services; and Toxicology and Biochemistry Research).

    The Deputy Directorate Technical Advisory Services includes the, AJ Orenstein Library, and the ILO-CIS National Occupational and Safety Health Information Centre.

Key areas that have been strengthened and expanded in the restructuring of the NCOH are the Technical Advisory Services, Occupational Hygiene, and Epidemiology.

The NCOH has close links with a number of educational establishments. The first South African Diploma in Occupational Health (DOH) course for doctors was established here and has been run in conjunction with the University of the Witwatersrand since 1974. An MPH: occupational hygiene was established in 2001.

The NCOH has also developed extensive international links to further its expertise. Close links were developed with the Union Internationale Contre le Cancer (UICC) in 1964 and later with the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). In 1995 the NCOH was appointed by the ILO as the CIS-ILO National Occupational and Safety Health Information Centre for South Africa. In 1996 the NCOH signed a collaboration agreement with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in the USA.

A collaboration agreement with the UK Health and Safety Laboratories (HSL) followed in 1999. The NCOH established and managed the WHO/South Africa Technical Cooperation Programme 1996-2003: Occupational Health for the initial two years (1996-97) and plans to become a WHO Collaborating Centre in the near future.

If you want to talk to us about, a health and safety problem, compensation fro deceased mineworkers, or a particular workplace, contact the NCOH Communication Officers.

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