Title: Points of View

Author:

Section/SPIG: Occupational Health and Safety

Issue Date:

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Points of View is a new section of the newsletter devoted to opinions, ideas and comments to encourage dialogue and debate. Contact Ingrid Denis, idenis@aoec.org for more information.

OHS Section Membership
Mitchell R. Zavon, MD APHA/Life Member

Many years ago, when I served for 10 years as secretary, vice chair and chair of the Section, the membership of the Section was dominated by industry types. When APHA became more of a consumer organization rather than a purely professional organization, many of the members of that time became inactive if they remained as members at all. The Section became much larger and dominated by people more involved in labor organizations or who were more recognizable as "labor" oriented than as physicians, industrial hygienists, health physicists, toxicologists, or safety people though they may well have had professional credentials.

My experience has been that those who are concerned with the health of the work force may differ in how best to protect the health of the worker, but they are all concerned with the problems of health protection. A dialogue on how best to protect worker health can have considerable impact. Attempting to recruit those health professionals who are industry oriented in order to have such dialogue within the Section should be considered.

With the broken health care system in the United States, having all of the health care team represented within the Section would strengthen our voice in the worker health community. The polarization of the occupational health and safety community has not enhanced our impact in the health community nor in the body-politic. It is time to look for improved ways of impacting in our society and in the rest of the world. The American Industrial Hygiene Association and the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists evolved out of this Section of APHA. Have we contributed significantly to any other major developments in the past 50 or so years?

OSHA Training Lacking Safety During Disaster Site Clean-up
Jeffery C. Camplin, CSP, CPEA

What happened to using the hierarchy of controls for protecting workers from occupational hazards at the work place? Apparently, at disaster sites it takes a back seat.

I just recently completed the OSHA train the trainer course to become an OSHA approved instructor of their 7600 course “Disaster Site Worker Course.” This 16-hour course’s intended audience includes those who provide skilled support services (e.g., utility, demolition, debris removal, or heavy equipment operation) or site clean-up services in response to a disaster. Topic and recommended time allotments are as follows:

Course Topic Titles:
1. Introduction/Overview (1.5 hours)
2. Incident Command System/Unified Command Systems (1.0 hour)
3. Safety Hazards (2.5 hours)
4. Health Hazards (2.0 hours)
5. CBRNE Agents (1.0 hour)
6. Traumatic Incident Stress Awareness (1.0 hour)
7. Respiratory Protection (3.5 hours)
8. Other Personal Protective Equipment (1.25 hours)
9. Decontamination (1.5 hours)
10. Final Exercise (0.75 hour)

The training facilitators at the course I attended strongly emphasized the 3½ hours, or nearly 25 percent of the course, spent on respirators. The rationale for so much dedication to the use of respiratory protection was the fact that workers were going into disaster areas where hazards and risks were somewhat unknown. I found this theory disturbing for many reasons.

First, OSHA usually stresses and enforces the hierarchy of controls when employers address workplace hazards. It appears that too many employers have or will be handing out respirators to their employees without evaluating respiratory hazards and/or the appropriate engineering and administrative controls necessary to protect workers' safety and health. The burden of wearing respiratory protection is not supposed to be placed on the employee when jobsite respiratory hazards are undefined or administrative and engineering controls have not been fully implemented to reduce them.

Another problem I have with emphasizing respiratory protection in this course deals with the unknown, possible or probable hazards workers will encounter at a disaster site. Some of the more common airborne contaminants identified in the training that workers can anticipate during disaster site clean-ups includes asbestos, lead paint, silica, metal fumes, mold, and other biohazards. Most of these hazards trigger additional regulatory requirements including exposure monitoring, medical surveillance, additional training, special work practices (including mandatory and prohibited activities), regulated work areas, hygiene facilities, and record-keeping.

Too many companies are responding to disaster sites with ill-trained and ill-equipped work forces as they follow the money. Add no enforcement of workplace safety standards by government agencies to the mix and you have the makings for an occupational safety and health emergency. Yet excuses prevail as we throw up our collective hands and cry, “We are doing the best we can” or “At least this is better than nothing.” Public health professionals know better than this. We need to be the ones to step up and draw the line in the sand for worker safety and health.

You don’t put improperly trained and ill-equipped workers into harms way. I plan on teaching safety in my 7,600 classes. And that may mean teaching employees and employers they don’t qualify as a Disaster Site Worker.

NIOSH Resources

A must read for any SHE professional involved in disaster site safety is the NIOSH Publication No. 2004-144: Protecting Emergency Responders, Volume 3, entitled “Safety Management in Disaster and Terrorism Response”. Additional resources available from NIOSH include Disaster Sites (General), Eye Safety, Silica, Asbestos, Carbon Monoxide, Electrocution, Falls, Confined Spaces, Chemical Hazards, Structural Hazards, Mechanical Hazards, and Mining. For more information click http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/emres/sitemgt.html.

OSHA Resources

OSHA safety and health experts have already developed 37 fact sheets and eight "quick cards"-two-sided, 4-by-9 inch cards with safety and health tips-on hazards such as molds and fungi, downed electrical wires and general decontamination, to name a few. OSHA Resources for Keeping Workers Safe During Clean Up and Recovery Operations (http://www.osha-slc.gov/OshDoc/hurricaneRecovery.html.)

NIEHS Worker Education and Training Program (WETP) Resources

NIEHS produces an E-Newsbrief from their National Clearinghouse on new developments in the world of worker health and safety. The WEPT website can be accessed at http://www.wetp.org.

Centers for Disease Control Resources

The CDC offers resources on radiation exposure, anthrax, biological and chemical exposures, heat and cold issues, and keeping food safe. The CDC also provides resources on stress awareness and management, long shift work, and depression. These documents can be accessed at http://www.bt.cdc.gov.

EPA Resources

The EPA has several documents addressing natural disasters. Visit http://www.epa.gov/naturalevents for more information. Lessons learned from environmental issues related to the 911 attacks in 2001 can also provide useful information to SHE professionals. For more information visit http://www.epa.gov/ebtpages/emernaturaldisasteseptember11response.html.

FEMA Resources on Hazard Recognition

The FEMA Web site contains resources about specific hazards including dam safety, earthquakes, extreme heat, fires, floods, hazardous materials, hurricanes, landslides, multi-hazards, nuclear, terrorism, thunderstorms, tornadoes, tsunamis, volcanoes, and wildfires. These resources can be accessed at http://www.fema.gov/hazards.

Resources from the Department of Homeland Security

The Department of Homeland Security provides many resources for citizens, businesses, and emergency responders who will be affected by various disasters including biological, chemical, explosions, nuclear blasts, radiological events, and natural disasters. This information can be accessed at http://www.ready.gov/america/index.html.

American Red Cross Resources

This Web site provides valuable advice for preparing a business disaster recovery plan and worker emergency kits. They can be accessed at http://www.redcross.org/services/disaster.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration “Storm Ready” Resources

The NWS StormReady and TsunamiReady programs can help you be better prepared to save lives during threatening weather through better planning, education, and awareness. These resources can be accessed at http://www.stormready.noaa.gov/links.htm.

U.S. Geological Survey's Natural Hazards Support System(NHSS): Near Real Time Integrated Natural Hazards Monitoring.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Natural Hazards Support System (NHSS) helps monitor and analyze natural hazard events, including earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanoes, severe weather, floods, wildfires, and tsunamis.. These resources can be accessed at http://nhss.cr.usgs.gov.