New Perspectives on Regulation of the Working Environment

The Scandinavian countries adopted new legislation on the working environment in the 1970s which moved away from detailed technical rules and towards a reflexive legisla-tion. In the following period the working environment got received higher political pri-ority in the society. Evaluating the development during the last 25-30 years, a number of successful improvements can be identified.

However, the general development has not been as positive as expected. It seems that new problems are emerging while the traditionally physical and chemical problems are becoming under better control. It is therefore necessary to develop new strategies for prevention and regulation. But that is also a difficult exercise due to the fairly different political interests of all the involved parties.