In the context of the German Spine Study, a population-based case-control study covering 915 cases and 901 controls, a two-stage method for investigating exposure was employed for the study of dose-effect relationships between occupational spinal workloads and disc-related disease of the lumbar spine. In an initial survey by lay interviewers, 1317 subjects were identified who were exposed in their working lives to certain minimum workloads from the manual handling of loads, working with strong or extreme forward bending of the trunk or whole-body vibration. Of these, 1202 subjects finally agreed to take part in an in-depth investigation of workloads by technical experts of the accident insurance institutions. This investigation covered detailed information on occupational workloads due to activities such as lifting, carrying, pulling, pushing, throwing and shovelling loads weighing about 5 kg or more, working with strong or extreme bending of the trunk and the effects of whole-body vibration. In this way, the exposure was reconstructed for each test subject's entire working life. The quality of the investigation of exposure in this study can be considered much higher than that of the studies conducted so far in this field of research. Independently of any effects on the facts of occupational disease, the results of the investigation indicate that, in future, even workloads not considered contributory to occupational disease should be given greater attention in terms of the prevention of back complaints and work-related health hazards.