Proactive measures to prevent occupational diseases among workers

Preventing occupational diseases at the workplace is essential to protecting workers’ health, maintaining a stable workforce, and supporting sustainable production.

Businesses should regularly inspect the working environment and organize health check-ups and occupational disease screenings for workers. These measures are not only a legal responsibility but also help businesses protect their workforce, reduce losses related to worker health, and maintain stable production.

Workers at An Loi Garment Co., Ltd. in the Amata Industrial Park at work.

Protecting the workforce

Dong Nai has a large workforce that plays an important role in the city’s development. As production expands, ensuring occupational safety and hygiene and protecting workers’ health have become increasingly important. At factories and enterprises, workers face not only the risk of sudden workplace accidents but also occupational diseases that can develop silently after prolonged exposure to harmful factors in the working environment.

According to the Dong Nai Center for Disease Control (DNCDC), workers may be regularly exposed to noise, dust, chemicals, high temperatures, and vibration, or work in environments or positions that pose health risks. If these hazards are not detected and controlled at an early stage, they can have long-term effects on workers’ health, ability to work, and quality of life.

Inspections conducted by inter-agency teams in Dong Nai have shown that the proportion of workers receiving regular health check-ups and occupational disease screenings remains low compared with the size of the workforce. Notably, some businesses have yet to pay sufficient attention to worker healthcare, health monitoring, and the early detection of health risks. The situation points to gaps in worker healthcare that need to be addressed promptly.

Statistics from the DNCDC show that, following the administrative merger, Dong Nai had more than 2 million workers aged 15 and above across various economic sectors in 2025. However, only 2,393 establishments maintained health records for around 1.28 million workers. Notably, only 369 businesses organized regular health check-ups, covering more than 391,000 workers.

Specialist Level I Doctor Do Quoc Chung, Head of the Occupational Disease Department under the DNCDC, said businesses across Dong Nai still faced shortcomings in managing, preventing, and controlling occupational diseases, particularly in terms of awareness and implementation. Some businesses, he noted, had yet to fully recognize the importance of occupational disease prevention and control in protecting workers’ health or had not proactively coordinated with medical facilities.

According to Dr. Chung, although the Government and the Ministry of Health have issued numerous regulations and guidelines on healthcare, occupational safety and hygiene, and occupational disease prevention and control, many businesses have yet to fully implement them. As a result, occupational disease prevention and control at some enterprises remains largely limited to meeting formal or procedural requirements.

Early prevention of occupational diseases

To help businesses raise awareness and strengthen their responsibilities in implementing policies on occupational accident and disease insurance, the Department of Home Affairs recently held a conference to disseminate relevant legal regulations for 2026. The conference gave business representatives an opportunity to review their current practices and identify areas that still need to be addressed or improved. In particular, businesses highlighted the need to pay greater attention to pre-employment health examinations so that workers can be assigned jobs appropriate to their health conditions.

Tran Le Thuy Trang, supervisor of the Human Resources Management Department at Pegasus - Shimamoto Auto Parts Vietnam Co., Ltd. in the Long Duc Industrial Park, said the conference showed businesses that they still needed to update their knowledge in several areas, particularly new legal regulations and requirements related to worker healthcare. This also provides a basis for the relevant department to advise company leaders on developing and updating appropriate policies, improving the working environment, and better protecting workers’ health and safety.

Nguyen Van Hien, human resources manager at Anywear Co., Ltd. in An Phuoc commune, said workers in the garment industry are frequently exposed to noise and dust. Therefore, the company pays close attention to workers’ health. Every year, the company organizes two regular health check-ups, conducts workplace environment measurements and monitoring, and arranges occupational disease examinations in accordance with regulations.

“After more than 10 years of operation, the company has gained a deeper understanding of the importance of worker healthcare and occupational disease prevention. Training programs organized by the Department of Home Affairs have also given us additional knowledge to better comply with occupational safety and hygiene regulations and strengthen our responsibility to protect workers’ health,” he added.

To create more opportunities for workers to secure stable employment, improve workforce quality, and build a modern labor market, Dong Nai issued Plan No. 70/KH-UBND on labor, employment, and social insurance for the 2026-2030 period in early 2026.

By N.Hoa – Translated by M.Nguyet, Minho