Surveillance of employees

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). 

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. 

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... 

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-... 

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). 

Human health biomonitoring using biomarkers and chemical analyses are used in the following applications (1) Health surveillance of persons who are known to have high occupational or environmental exposures to potentially toxic chemicals. This may include those who work with chemicals, radioactive materials, or biohazards as part of their occupation. Examples include factory workers, chemical industry employees, farmers, health care professionals, nuclear plant employees, and veterans of the Gulf War I. This may also consist of those who are involuntarily exposed to such hazards in their everyday surroundings. Some examples are people living near land fills, factories, hazardous waste sites, or environmental catastrophes such as the Chernobyl... 

Emergency procedures must be established, and suitable monitoring and health surveillance procedures adopted. Employers must provide employees with results of employee-health surveillance, as well as with training about risks to health and appropriate precautions. 

C) To conduct pre-assignment or periodic medical surveillance of exposed employees ... 

In addition to external surveillance, an internal system for ensuring compliance with the health and safety provisions is in place. This is composed of safety engineers and the occupational medical support service (which is mandatory for companies of a certain number of employees), as well as representatives of the workforce. Regular meetings between the management and other people responsible for health and safety within an enterprise are mandatory. 

In an occupational setting, where prevention of work-related illness is a primary goal, analysis of employee medical information serves as a surveillance mechanism for early detettion of such illness. 

The aim of proactive job surveys is to identify specific jobs and processes that may put employees at risk of developing WRMDs. Job surveys are typically performed after the jobs identified by the previous two surveillance components have been rectified. Job surveys of all jobs or a sample of representatives should be performed. Analysis of existing records will be used to estimate the potential magnitude of the problem in the workplace. The number of employees in each job, department, or similar population will be determined first. Then the incidence rates will be calculated on the basis of hours worked, as follows ... 

Using the data obtained in surveillance the following numbers of employees are counted ... 

Employees serve as the eyes and ears of any company security effort. They know how equipment should be, the people who work specific areas, when contractors are scheduled to show up and for how long, what they should be doing, etc. In essence, they know the normal operations of a site and can spot when something abnormal is occurring. Training and awareness can transform employees into a natural surveillance system. Employees should be trained in a manner similar to the first responder in HAZWOPER. Their training should include such security practices as ... 

Provisions for medical consultation and medical surveillance for employees when conditions exist in which exposures in excess of the PELs or action levels may have occurred or may routinely occur. 

A systemis to be established forproperreporting of laboratory accidents, exposures,and employee absenteeism, and for medical surveillance of potential laboratory-associated... 

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