The National Occupational Illness Surveillance and Prevention Network (RNV3P) established in 2002 as a network of experts from 29 university hospitals as well as occupational physicians records and monitors occupational health problems (OHPs) based on Soccupational health consultations in university hospitals in mainland France and in occupational medical health services (approximately 5000 OHPs/year for patients seen in hospital consultations). The OHP data are collected systematically according to a standardised code which is attributed based on main variables of interest: disease and co-morbidity (CIM-10), 1-5 impact codes (INRS), an occupational code (ILO) and a code for the type and domain of professional activity (NAF-93). For certain problems recorded, the clinician also reports a degree of imputance for attributing the level of certainty for the problem's relationship to the S main illness (weak, probable, strong). At present, 30,000 OHPs diagnosed and recorded in occupational illness consultation centers have been recorded in the information database and have been utilised for epidemiological surveillance. The surveillance activity of the network is carried out on two levels. First, a planned epidemiological health activity is programmed which focuses on estimating the incidence of illness--predefined problems. In a parallel fashion, research is developed to explore the tools which can be used to highlight emerging illness and develop methodologies to detect the relationships of unknown problems to the incidence of these illnesses--including those that present a communicable nature (either temporarily or over the long term), in certain professions or sectors.