Block 3: Occupational Health Management - Section 2: Occupational Health Programme

OHM2.1: Overview

Overview:

Jonny, I have highlighted the following chunk of info in yellow, because I sense that this is an unnecessary duplication of the stuff in the "Ten Steps". This page should just be an overview of the programme, as the heading suggests. What do you think?

 The following key components are considered necessary if the programme objectives are to be achieved: SHOULD WE NOT SAY THAT THE COMPANY SHOULD HAVE A POLICY DOCUMENT IN WHICH THESE OBJECTIVES BELOW ARE LISTED?THIS COULD REPLACE THE SPECIFIC MEDICAL SURVEILLANCE POLICY BELOW.  EITHER WAY THEY NEED TO HAVE ACCESS TO A TEMPLATE FOR COMPANY POLICY WITH REGARD TO HRA, SAFETY, MEDICAL SCREENING AND SURVEILLANCE

Risk Assessment

• A risk assessment to be conducted every two years and reviewed annually. All major new developments and acquisitions will similarly be assessed before final approval.
• Occupational exposure limits (OEL’s) should , at the very least, comply with South African legal standards or, where these do not exist, with standards laid down by (in descending order of preference):


• The National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety (NIOSH).
• The American Conference of Governmental and Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH).
• The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) 

• All factories will abide with an agreed safety programme (e.g. NOSA). The intention is to reflect a continuous decrease in the disabling injury frequency rate.

Medical screening and surveillance

• The minimum requirements for the Occupational Health Surveillance Programme will be laid out in the company’s Medical Surveillance Policy, and also in any relevant specific programmes, for example, Chemical Safety Programme, Hearing Conservation and the Driver Health Programme.

Employee training - induction, further education and responsibility

• All employees will be inducted, including specific information on hazards and risks incurred at the workplace and safe working procedures for each job category. Employees will regularly undergo needs-driven health awareness and safety education and training as part of ongoing training and development.
• Responsibility for health, safety and environmental protection will be an objective in each employee’s job description and an important consideration in performance reviews.

The Health information systems

• A Health Information System (HIS) will provide an annual analysis of health outcomes and, all things being equal, the statistics should show a relative reduction in the incidence of accidents and diseases.

Which picture is this? The picture on the right can be seen clearly by clicking on it. It gives a schematic view of the Health Risk Assessment process.

The first priority of the Occupational Health Programme is to conduct a an initial formal Risk Assessment, in which all Health, Safety and Environmental hazards are identified and evaluated. This evaluation should include the potential effects of the hazards as well as the degree to which employees are exposed, thereby enabling a quantification of their risks. Further details regarding this procedure are to found in the Health Risk Assessment Guideline. The HRA comprises workplace-based risk assessments, employee-based risk assessments, hazardous chemical substance (HCS) risk assessments, and hazardous biological agents (HBA) risk assessments.

When the employee-based risk assessments are conducted, the operational standards (human resource job fitness standards) required for the company's occupations should be investigated and specified. This important component is known as standard-setting.

Various members of the OH service should conduct ongoing periodic regular workplace inspections to identify potential hazards, evaluate their potential risks and formulate plans for remedial action.

Hazardous chemical substances are a particular challenge. These should initially be listed, and documentation containing detailed information regarding their effects on health should be established. Further details regarding this procedure are to be found in the Chemical Toxicology Profiling SOP.

Periodic review of materials processes, projects and working procedures to assist management in the protection of health of workers and compliance with health and safety recommendations and legislation.

The outcomes of the employee-based risk assessments and the HCS Risk assessments provide the required information the medical team to enable the design and implementation of the Medical Screening programme, in which job fitness evaluation and adverse effect screening is conducted.

The results of the HRA and the Medical Screening programmes comprise valuable data that should be fed into appropriate software that is able to analyse by groups, seek to identify trends, and track progress. This is the "Health Information System".

REFERENCES: (SYNERGEE Documentation:)

Maybe we need to have a ref to a policy document which pulls this all together. My feeling is that the only relevant reference document here would be the "Occupational Health Programme Policy" document (if any). The others listed below are too early here (this is an overview document) - they should be referenced in the "Ten Steps" document (which is a more detailed document).

the other refs below could come later on or be linked on this page as well as later on

1. Guideline:L Health Risk Assessment ("HRA").
2. Occupational Risk and Exposure Profiling (OREPs").
3. Worker Allocated Surveillance Programmes ("WASPs").
4. Workplace Risk Exposure Profiles (WREP's).