MANILA, Philippines -- The Call Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP) will conduct its own "health and wellness" study that will serve as an industry benchmark for employees in business process outsourcing (BPO) firms.

"We want to have our own validated data that our member-companies can refer to," said Raffy David, a member of CCAP's board of directors.

Due to the nature of work in call centers, there have been reports about health risks caused by working night shifts. This despite the fact that the industry has grown to more than 200,000 workers and is forecasted to grow further due to demand from overseas.

"First and foremost, our goal is to know for ourselves that this industry is not as hazardous as some parents think it is," David said in an interview with INQUIRER.net.

CCAP currently has around 35 member-companies, including big third-party service providers like Accenture, Convergys and People Support.

David added that the group is expanding its membership to include "captive" companies like Dell and HSBC that have built their own call center operations in the Philippines.

CCAP recently elected a new set of board directors and according to David, the group is putting resources into internal research.

"We want to seek answers to issues that affect us as an industry. CCAP is going beyond promotion or as a vehicle for interaction among member-firms," he added.

David earlier said CCAP will conduct its own study on the impact of the dollar depreciation on the call center industry.