INTRODUCTION

The Swedish system for regulating the work environment is traditionally perceived as amongst the most conceptually advanced and well resourced in Europe and a prime example of the Scandinavian approach to the subject. It has a relatively long history of setting and using OELs and from the 1960s until the present time has set exposure limits and used them in the determination of acceptable standards of occupational health and safety (OHS) management practice in workplaces. Moreover, the levels at which these OELs have been set are amongst the lowest internationally and within the Swedish system for setting them there is a long established separation of decision-making structures on scientific issues from those that include economic and other concerns. For these reasons it seemed appropriate to examine its operation, to consider how OELs are used and how they relate to the wider system for regulating the work environment in Sweden.

Generally, the features of the Scandinavian approach to work environment regulation include an emphasis on consensus and on corporatist decision-making at national and sectoral level, support from a comparatively highly developed provision of external prevention services and strong representative participation in activating health and safety at the local level. From the early 1990s in Sweden such approaches at the level of the workplace were embraced by the term internal control in which a systematic approach to participative OHS management was envisaged in clarifying responsibilities and obligations of employers as responsible and accountable subjects. More recently this approach has been slightly...