Because occupational hazards of small-scale industries were severe and the occupational health management lagged behind in Shanghai, we selected some districts as experimental units to explore a model of community management and service for the occupational health in small-scale industries for controlling occupational hazards. The results indicated that the model is useful. The features of occupational health in these small-scale industries have been improved markedly. For example, the monitoring rate of occupational hazards increased, the rate for occupational health recording and training also increased, and the knowledge of the occupational health among managers and employees has been also enhanced after implementing the new management model. The practice has shown that it is a low-cost and wide-covered, effective model. The communities may offer the standard, agreeable and low-price occupational health management and service to the small-scale industries which are able to pay the service fee although their economic base is comparatively weak. A solution for protecting the occupational population with relatively high mobility and keeping small-scale industries sustainable development has been reported. (C) 2004 Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.
