Employee surveillance

Management and Employee Cooperation. Before beginning to collect data, the cooperation of the managers involved, including the first line supervisor, and of the workers should be secured. Management needs to be informed so that they can be confident that surveillance activities will not upset production or lead to injuries. Workers need to know what the valuation means to them and how the results are to be reported. Everyone needs to know how the measurement is to be conducted so that the actual measurement causes as Htde dismption as possible. 

If a known adverse health effect can reasonably be anticipated under the circumstances of work - and could readily be observed - some form of heahh surveillance is appropriate. This may involve a doctor or trained nurse. It may include the checking of employees skin for dermatitis or asking questions relevant to any asthmatic condition where work is with recognized causative agents (e.g. epoxy resin curing agents). 

HAZWOPER, related DOE, and the Army Corps of Engineers rules and requirements stipulate that employees involved in any of the following activities who have a reasonable possibility of exposure to hazardous substances or health hazards at specified levels (see 1910.120 [f [2]) should be included in a medical surveillance program ... 

L. A medical surveillance program must be in place to assess and monitor the health and fitness of employees. A medical surveillance program helps assess and monitor the health and fitness of employees working with hazardous substances. The contractors at Sites A, E, H, and K and one subcontractor at Site I appear to have established medical surveillance programs that with minor exceptions were consistent with HAZWOPER requirements. 

Medical surveillance program The evaluation of an employee s health status, performed on a regular periodic basis by a health professional, to detect problems associated wnth exposure to health haz-... 

Health surveillance is required for employees doing the following jobs... 

Ybir records should contain details of the employees, the health sirveillance procedures, dates and conrdusions. The health care professional doing the surveillance will hold the actual medical rerrords, as these are confidential. 

Development and implementation of prospective medical surveillance system for cancer control involving 1,200 active employees, 5,500 previous employees and 3,500 family members of employees from 1974... 

Feature 7. Create employee protocols for detection of contamination consistent with the recognized limitations in current contaminant detection, monitoring, and surveillance technology. 

Some procedures and practices, for example the handling of lead, may require that employees undergo medical surveillance. This is never a practice that is well-accepted by employees, but one that nevertheless has to be implemented, sometimes under the penalties of law. This surveillance, of course, has to be done with the advice and participation of medical per-... 

This training must include topics specified by the OSHA rules. If an employee is exposed at or above the action level for a period of 30 days or more in a calendar year, medical surveillance is required according to the OSHA construction industry asbestos standard. 

The standard presents OSHA s determination that exposure to cotton dust presents a significant health hazard to employees and establishes permissible exposure limits for selected processes in the cotton industry and for non-textile industries where there is exposure to cotton dust. The cotton dust standard also provides for employee exposure monitoring, engineering controls and work practices, respirators, employee training, medical surveillance, signs and record keeping. 

Further, this standard provides for methods of compliance, personal protective equipment, adequate communication of benzene hazards to employees, regulated areas, and medical surveillance of workers who are or may be exposed to benzene. Any employee routinely exposed to benzene should, in addition to wearing protective equipment, receive periodic blood tests. 

The goal of employee health monitoring is to ensure that measures to protect the employee from workplace hazards are effective by carrying out medical surveillance programs for the early detection of adverse health effects. The types of chemical or physical hazards encountered determine the nature of the medical surveillance or health monitoring programs. 

Periodic medical surveillance. The health status of employees should be reviewed periodically to ensure that no work-related illnesses have developed. Reviews may be limited to appropriate organ(s) or organ system(s). The frequency of reviews is related to the potential hazard(s). 

Bond GG, Ott MG, Brenner FE, et al. 1983. Medical and morbidity surveillance findings among employees potentially exposed to TCDD. Br J Ind Med 40 318-324. 

Decide what precautions are needed. These precautions may include building or retrofitting a facility, investing in engineering solutions, developing specific training, or providing medical surveillance for employees involved in the work, etc. 

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