Start with the current text
Royal Decree 1299/2006 approves the schedule and its updating system. Consult the current consolidated version and check which amendment it incorporates, rather than using an old table saved in a file.
Article 157 of the General Social Security Act establishes the concept for employees. Other coverage situations require checking their specific schemes; this article focuses on reading the Spanish schedule.
Locate the group and complete entry
Annex 1 contains six groups: chemical agents, physical agents, biological agents, inhalation of other agents, skin diseases and carcinogenic agents. The structure helps locate entries, rather than diagnosing from a group’s name.
Then review the agent, subagent, disease description and activities corresponding to the entry. If searching for a term through the browser, also read the headings and preceding rows that provide context.
How to interpret a code
The Annex 1 coding table has columns for group, agent, subagent and activity. The code combines those elements to identify the entry; it is not a measure of severity or exposure level.
For example, 1A0302 corresponds to the chemical group, metals, cadmium and its compounds, and the activity of manufacturing nickel-cadmium batteries. The example demonstrates how to read the structure; it does not, by itself, determine that someone has an occupational disease.
Check against the work actually performed
Reconstruct tasks, products, agents, duration and exposure conditions, including relevant previous work. The job title may be too generic to compare an activity with the table.
Risk assessments, measurements and product documentation help explain exposure. These must be coordinated with the corresponding health assessment while respecting confidentiality. The company supplies occupational information; it does not replace the bodies that classify the contingency.
Annex 1 and the complementary list
Annex 2 lists diseases suspected of having an occupational origin whose inclusion in the schedule might be considered subsequently. It should not be presented as an automatic extension of Annex 1.
The absence of an entry does not establish that a health problem is unrelated to work either. Another clinical or contingency assessment may be needed. The obligation to investigate and control exposures does not depend solely on finding a code.
Reporting and subsequent action
Royal Decree 1299/2006 distinguishes classification, processing of the report and reporting suspected cases by medical practitioners. Order TAS/1/2007 regulates electronic reporting and CEPROSS, assigning functions to managing or collaborating entities and requiring employers to provide information.
In parallel, Article 16 of the Occupational Risk Prevention Act requires investigating harm to health to identify its causes. Consulting the table should support that prevention rather than becoming a formality that ends the analysis.
Hypothetical example: searching by product
Possible exposure to a cadmium compound is identified at a workplace. The preventive team locates related entries and documents the tasks and products actually used.
It sends the necessary information through the appropriate channels and reviews control measures. It does not assign a code solely from a product’s trade name or announce a classification that has not yet been decided.
