Introduction

Abstract

This is the third international symposium on night- and shiftwork to be organized under the auspices of the Permanent Commission and International Association on Occupational Health. Some of you were at one or both of the previous two meetings, the first in Oslo in 1969, and the second in Slanchev Bryag in 1971; these meetings were most valuable in allowing each of us working in this area to find out what the others were doing, and to exchange views on a friendly and informal basis. Each of those previous meetings resulted in a very useful publication which summarised, as it were, the ‘state of the art’ at the time. We hope that this present gathering will result in a similar publication, bringing us up to date with the latest findings.