We use an in house database, which is an integrated part of our bespoke information management system. It's OK, but I think it could have been better designed at the start (I gave a detailed spec on what I wanted from the A&I part of it, but didn't get everything I asked for). To be honest an off the market solution would be preferable from my point of view. Sam

I've been developing a database system in Access and Excel, which I'm - at long last - gradually developing into the inferential statistics system that I was aspiring to create. That H & S lags behind other business functions in its uses of inferential statistics functions is partly attributable to the lack of publications directly addressing this task. The only one I've been able to find is 'Research Design and Statistics for the Safety and Health professional', C A Cacha, Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1997, which just about passes muster on relevant techniques, but programs like Excel and Minitab make them far more accessible than when the title was published and increasing uses of confidence intervals ad effect sizes mean Cacha's material has become quite dated.