Accidents and resulting injuries have become a new public health challenge, paricularly in developing countries. They now rank among the five leading causes of death, and even the leading cause of death in children and adolescents in most countries. Because of this, they are the most important cause of lost productive life years. The burden of injuries on health care services is particularly heavy in the industrialized world where they are the prime cause of physician contacts and represent between 10 and 30% of hospital admission rates. The situation is becoming similar in developing countries. The main causes of injuries are road, domestic, and occupational accidentsThe World Health Organization has established a programme of cooperation with Member States to control the accident and injury epidemic, emphasizing the need for prevention. It is promoting epidemiological assessment as a basis for programme formulation.With regard to occupational accidents, which are part of the WHO programme on workers' health, the following is to be developed in the future:(1)Identification of the magnitude of the problem of occupational accidents and injuries in a systematic manner, and development of standard occupational safety reporting system(2)Research into the human aspects of safety(3)The development of occupational epidemiology controlling accidents and injuries.