At its 291st Session (November 2004), the Governing Body of the International Labour Office (ILO) decided to convene a tripartite meeting of experts to update the list of occupational diseases. The meeting will be held at the ILO, Geneva, from 13 to 20 December 2005.

More than thirty experts from 25 countries were nominated by the governments, the employers' group and the workers' group are charged to review and update the list as annexed to the List of Occupational Diseases Recommendation, 2002 (R194). The new adopted list shall then be submitted to the Governing Body for its approval, and upon approval, shall replace the preceding list that accompanies the R194.

In order to help the Office in its technical preparation for a structured review of occupational diseases recognized at the national and international level, a questionnaire was prepared and sent to the governments of the member States of the ILO. Replies from 80 countries were received and most are summarized in a working document [MEULOD/2005/1]. Documents also available for consultation are the proposed amendments [MEULOD/2005/2] and the technical justifications based on the developments in recognition and identfication for the new and modified items of the proposed list [MEULOD/2005/3] prepared for the Meeting of Experts. Useful technical information on unchanged items may be found in the ILO Encyclopaedia of Occupational Health and Safety, 1998.