Occupational exposure to physical agents: the new Italian database for risk assessment and control.

This article presents the new Italian database of physical agents, which is available at http://www.portaleagentifisici.it. It supports in risk assessment employers who have to comply with Italy's Legislative Decree 81/2008 (transposing into law European Union Directives 2003/10/EC, 2002/44/EC, 2004/40/EC and 2006/25/EC). The database currently contains measurements and declared European Community (EC) values from over 2540 machines; in particular, the database hosts data on mechanical vibration from over 1430 hand-held power tools (e.g., pneumatic and electric hammers, chainsaws, grinders, drills, sanders and saws) and from over 1020 whole-body machines (e.g., buses, fork lifts and wheel tractors). The database is continuously updated as soon as new experimental and declared data are acquired.