Occupational Illness Prevention

In this chapter you will find a discussion of how to prevent illnesses by carrying out an environmental assessment of the workplace. You will need to make the decision as to whether you have the expertise to make an effective and accurate evaluation of your worksite. In carrying out such an assessment, you may not have the expertise or even the equipment that you might need to do a viable and proper assessment to protect your health and that of your workforce. From the information in this chapter you should be able to determine when you have reached your limitations as well as understand your role in working with an industrial hygienist (IH). 

Industrial hygiene has been defined as that science or art devoted to the anticipation, recognition, evaluation, and control of those environmental factors or stresses, arising in or from the workplace, which may cause sickness, impaired health and well-being, or significant discomfort and inefficiency among workers or among the citizens of the community.  

OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY MANAGEMENT A PRACTICAL APPROACH 

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As a part of an effective Health, Safety, and Environment (HSE) program, a Job Safety Analysis (JSA) has proved to be an effective accident and occupational illness prevention tool in many industries. The JSA, also known as a Job Hazard Analysis (JHA), is a safety management tool in which the risks or hazards of a specific job in the workplace are identified and measures to eliminate or control those hazards are determined and implemented. Most safety programs are considered reactive, an action in response to an incident. A JSA is considered a proactive approach to workplace safety. A JSA is a process of systematically evaluating certain jobs, identifying the hazards or potential hazard associated with each step of the job, and finding effective control measures to eliminate or reduce the risk of hazards and make the workplace as safe as possible, before those hazards have a chance to become accidents. 

Thus, there is a clear need to establish the relationship between the health effects of hazardous chemical agents in the environment and the level of occupational exposure to the body by means of an occupational exposure limit, in which a reference figure for the concentration of a chemical agent is set. In fact, occupational exposure limits (OELs) have been a feature of the industrialized world since the early 1950s. They were introduced, primarily in the United States, at a time when measures to prevent occupational diseases were considered more beneficial than compensating victims, and in this sense OELs have played an important part in the control of occupational illnesses. 

We believe that all injuries and occupational illnesses, as well as safety and environmental incidents, are preventable, and our goal for all of them is zero. We will promote off-the-job safety for our employees,... 

Occupational Illness a section of the CER titled Elealth describes the occupational health provision made by EniChem. This includes figures for expenditure (Eur 515 per employee, 60% on preventive medicine and 40% on first aid). It also describes initiatives to control and monitor workplace exposure. No figures for occupational illness are included. 

The occupational safety and health community uses various names to describe systematic approaches to reducing injuries and illnesses in the workplace. Consensus and international standards use the term Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems OSHA currently uses the term Injury and Illness Prevention Programs and others use Safety and Health Programs to describe these types of systems. Regardless of the title, they all systematically address workplace safety and health hazards on an ongoing basis to reduce the extent and severity of work-related injuries and illnesses. 

There are at least two industry consensus standards for injury and illness prevention programs. The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) have published a voluntary consensus standard, ANSI/AIHA ZIO—2005 Occupational Safety and Health Management Systems (ANSI/AIHA 2005). The Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series (OHSAS) Project Group, a consortium of selected Registrars, national standards bodies, professional associations and research institutes, has produced a similar document, OHSAS 18001—2007 Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems (OHSAS Project Group 2007). These consensus-based standards have been widely accepted in the world of commerce and adopted by many businesses on a voluntary basis. 

Any disability or permanent impairment to an employee that results from any exposure in the work environment that (1) results in death, (2) prevents the employee from performing their normal assignment during the next regular or subsequent work day or shift, or (3) does not cause death or loss of time, but (a) results in transfer to another job or termination of employment, (b) requires medical treatment other than first aid, (c) results in loss of consciousness, (d) is diagnosed as an occupational illness, or (e) results in restriction of work or motion. 

Threshold limit value (TLV) n. Refers to airborne concentrations of substances, and represents conditions under which it is believed that nearly all workers may be repeatedly exposed, day after day, without adverse effect. These values may be breathed continually for 8h/day without harm. Because of wide variation in individual susceptibility, exposure of an occasional individual at or even below the threshold limit may not prevent discomfort, aggravation of a pre-existing condition, or occupational illness. Threshold... 

CAL/OSHA (1995). Model Injury and Illness Prevention Program for Workplace Security. California Department of Industrial Relations, Division of Occupational Safety and Health. March 30,1995. 

Health hazards that cause occupational illnesses present a more complex issue than safety hazards. Health-related hazards must be identified (recognized), evalnated, and controlled in order to prevent occupational illnesses, which come from exposure to them. Health-related hazards come in a variety of forms, snch as chanical, physical, ergonomic, or biological ... 

OSHA has released a White Paper that reaffirms the agency s commitment to injury and illness prevention programs (I2P2), calling them "effective, flexible, commonsense" tools that will help reduce occupational injuries and fatalities and increase productivity. 

Injury and Illness Prevention Program (I2P2). (n.d.). Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Adapted for Use. Retrieved from http //Lusa.gov/IIszWK. 

Guide to Developing Your Workplace Injury and Illness Prevention Program with checklists for self-inspection Adapted for Use. (n.d.). State of Cahfomia, Department of and Industrial Relations. Retrieved from http //bit.ly/Xewi5m. Injury and Illness Prevention Program (I2P2), Adapted for Use. (n.d.). Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Retrieved from http //Lusa.gov/lIszWK. 

Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Request for Information Preventing occupational illnesses through safer chemical management, https //www.osha.gov/chemicalmanagement/, (accessed Jan 2015). 

The goal of such efforts has been to assist policy makers on both sides of the Atlantic in ways that are mutually beneficial, on items like developing enforceable occupational exposure limits for cilica and other known carcinogens and promoting injury and illness prevention programs. 

Chapter 9—Hurting Occupational Injuries—The occurrence of injuries is usually inherently different from the onset of occupational illness. Injuries occur in real time with observable outcomes and the cause is usually easily identifiable since the sequence of events is reasonably easy to reconstruct. Most of the injuries are caused by the release of some sort of energy. This chapter will present the common types of energy, which need to be evaluated to prevent injuries from occurring, as well as events and factors that have more subtle causes, but are at least equal or more important as a causal factor of the injuries. A procedure of how best to evaluate and analyze the injuries being seen will be provided. 

Chapter 10—Sick Occupational Illnesses—Occupational illnesses often do not occur in real time, but have a latency period before their manifestation. When illnesses arise where symptoms occur immediately, the acute results can often follow a cause scenario similar to that of an injury. But, when exposures to chemicals, radiation, noise, biological entities, or environmental extremes transpire, effects are often not immediate. The approach to prevention has to be addressed before the event. In this chapter, illnesses and their preventive approaches will be addressed by following a normal industrial hygiene approach to head off possible occupationally related illnesses. The emphasis is on identifying the potential hazards to health and how to best preclude them or protect your workforce from exposure. 

You might want to know the most common reported illnesses in the woikplace. This can also assist you in deciding where to put your resources toward prevention of occupational illnesses in your facility or worksite. In Table 10.2 you can find a listing of the most commonly reported occupational illnesses. The cost of compensation should also make you look carefully at the types of illnesses that are most costly and yet are preventable. Most anployers look at trauma injuries only and seldom pay attention to the potential cost of occupationally related illnesses. 

Because individual susceptibility varies widely, an occasional exposure of an individual at (or even below) the threshold limit may not prevent discomfort, aggravation of a preexisting condition, or occupational illness. In addition to the TLVs set for chemical compounds, there are limits for physical agents, such as noise, microwaves, and heat stress. 

U.S. Department Of Labor, 2004. Unified Agenda 1979. Occupational Exposure to Hexavalent Chromium (preventing Occupational Illness Chromium) [OrUine]. Available www.dol.gov/osha/regsAmifiedagneda/1979.htm [Accessed]. 

Workers are injured or killed at workplaces across North America every day. Accidents can mean both human loss and financial loss to the employer and the employee. How can these losses be minimized The best way to prevent losses caused by accidents and occupational illness is to develop a solid, working program for accident prevention. Systematically looking at workplace operations, establishing proper job procedures, and ensuring all employees are properly trained can help prevent workplace injuries and illnesses. 

It is necessary to comment on the assertion made in familiar definitions of accidents (for example, Skiba, 1973), that an accident is the result of a sudden encounter between a person and a hazard. A differentiation is thus made between accidents and occupational illnesses the latter are seen as the result of harmful influences which have an effect over a long period of time. From the point of view of extensive occupational protection (Zimolong, 1980) as well as from a behavioral point of view, an exact differentiation between types of harmful influences does not make much sense. With respect to readiness to expose oneself to danger and to take the necessary preventive measures, behavior was often found to be the same, independent of whether long- or short-term injuries were expected we have clearly demonstrated this point in a study conducted by Ruppert (1984b). 

An example of a proposed regulatory mandated safety process is the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration s (OSHA) proposed Injury and Illness Prevention Plan.The proposal has been under review for a number of years and if implemented, the rule will require employers to develop and implement a program that minimizes worker exposure to safety and health hazards (Injury and Illness Prevention Program (12 P2), n.d.). 

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