Occupational Health System

TheSemiconductorSafetyHandbookopenswifhChapt r 1, Injury and Illness of Semiconductor Workers Experience and Epidemiological Studies, by Donald Lassiter and James Stewart. Donald Lassiter has been a key figure in the development and maintenance of the semiconductor industry s Occupational Health System (OHS) injury and illness database. Development of the OHS system was sponsored by SIA in the early 1980 s and OHS has become the leading occupational illness and injury tracking database for the industry. The OHS system has been in place since 1983 and has participation from approximately one-quarter to one-third of the US semiconductor industry. Data from the OHS system as well as annual incidence rates for OSHA-recordable work injuries and illnesses are presented and compared for the time period 1983-1995. The co-author of this chapter, James Stewart, provides a comprehensive review of epidemiological health studies that have been conducted for the semiconductor industry. 

In this chapter, we attempt to address both aspects of the U.S. semiconductor injury and illness experience. The chapter will skim over the past decade characterized by very low incidence rates of work injuries and illnesses among semiconductor workers to focus, instead, on stratification of work injuries and illnesses experienced by this work force during 1993 (provided by the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Occupational Health System of the Semiconductor Industry Association). PI Because of a major concern for the reproductive health of workers which surfaced in this industry during the middle 1980 s, a review of three, independent epidemiologic investigations is presented and the results discussed. 

Figure 1. Comparative amiual incidence rates for Occupational Health System, U.S. semiconductor industiy, durable goods, and all manufacturing (1983 ...

Beginning in 1982, the primary trade association ofthe U.S. semiconductor industry (Semiconductor Industry Association—SIA) has sponsored the development and maintenanee ofthe Occupational Health System (OHS). This system provides detailed data analyses of pertinent work injury and illness ease variables on an armual basis for the semieonduetor industry. Approximately one-quarterto one-third ofthe U.S. semieonduetor industry partieipates in the OHS program on a year-to-year basis. Priorto 1982, the only signifieant data eoneeming the safety and health experience of the nation s semiconductor work force were those published annually in the BLS surveys, as diseussed above. 

In 1991, the Board of Directors of the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) sponsored development of the Occupational Health System (OHS). The primary purpose of the OHS was to document the work injury and illness experience ofthe U.S. semiconductor industry work force on an annual basis. The OHS was supported by participating companies on an annual fee basis. 

Occupational Injuries and Illnesses Counts, Rates and Characteristics, 1993, US BLS Annual Survey of Oecupational Injuries and Illnesses in the Semiconduetor Industry, 1993, Occupational Health System of the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA)... 

Chemical Evaluation Search and Retrieval System (CESHRS), CCinfo CD ROM A2, Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety, Ontario, Canada, 1994. 

Systems for monitoring Working environments Toxic contaminants Temperature Noise Lighting Vibration Ionizing radiation Occupational health... 

Environmental Information Management System and Occupational Health Information System... 

The CESARS database contains comprehensive environmental and health information on chemicals. It provides detailed descriptions of chemical toxicity to humans, mammals, aquatic and plant life, as well as data on physical chemical properties, and environmental fate and persistence. Each record consists of chemical identification information and provides descriptive data on up to 23 topic areas, ranging from chemical properties to toxicity to environmental transport and fate. Records are in English. Available online through CCINFOline from the Canadian Centre For Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) and Chemical Information System (CIS) on CD-ROM through CCIN-FOdisc. 

Process definition and design criteria Process and equipment design Company memory (management information) Documentation of risk management decisions Protective systems Normal and upset conditions Chemical and occupational health hazards... 

Process Knowledge and Documentation—The main features here are process definition and design criteria, process and equipment design, company memory (management information), documentation of risk management decisions, protective systems, normal and upset con-dtions, and chemical and occupational health hazards. 

Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCINFO). This set of four CD-ROM disks contains several valuable data bases of information that are updated on a quarterly basis MSDS, CHEM Data, OHS Source, and OHS Data. The MSDS component currently contains over 60,000 MSDS supplied by chemical manufacturers and distributors. It also contains several other data bases [RIPP, RIPA, Pest Management Research Information System (PRIS)], one of which (PRIS) even includes information on pest management products, including their presence and allowable limits in food. 

The third and fourth disks include Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) information. These disks contain data bases on Resource Organizations, Resource People, Case Law, Jurisprudence, Fatalities, Mining Incidents, and ADISCAN. Furthermore, information on Noise Levels, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSHTEC) Non-Ionizing Radiation Levels, and a Document Information Directory System is readily retrievable. These CD-ROM materials are available from the Canadian Center for Occupational Health and Safety, 250 Main Street East, Hamilton, Ontario L8N 1H6. 

With regard to innovation processes the significance and the direct effectiveness of individual committed promoters or blockers with their individual motives such as profit or occupational health and safety, consumer protection or environmental protection should, however, not be overestimated. Although committed promoters do play an important part in most substitution processes, a closer look at the individual case samples very quickly reveals their structural futility. Complex innovative processes cannot be moved by a limited number of actors or even by individuals alone. Many substitution processes simply do not progress, despite the fact that we cannot observe any definite opponents . These innovations are not impeded, they only become stuck, as the inertia of the system is simply too high. In order to gain an appropriate comprehension of the ability (and not just the... 

Innovation drivers Alternative paint strippers have been developed as a consequence of the chlorine debate . However, neither the detailed requirements related to occupational health and safety (TRGS 612 and 212) nor the lower efficiency (cf (3)) clearly supported the penetration of the market with the alternative paint stripping systems. One barrier may be that the users have to change their work and purchasing procedures to apply the alternatives successfully. By end of the nineties the construction employers liability insurance started, based on the public media, an information campaign about the risks of DCM-containing paint strippers. 

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