Development by training: international training programs for occupational health and safety professionals

Six international courses, Occupational Safety and Health in Practice, were arranged for trainees from developing countries and Eastern Europe. Each included seven week of scheduled activities and the planning, realization, and reporting of an individual action project. In total there were 158 trainees, of whom 86% fulfilled the requirements fo successful completion. In this article the program assump tions are stated. The trainees, course objectives, course format, and financing of the courses are described. Th courses are evaluated considering the fulfillment of the course requirements, the realization and quality of the proj ects, and the meeting of course objectives.     

Terrorism preparedness training for occupational health professionals

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to assess occupational health professionals' terrorism preparedness and perceptions of worksite readiness. METHODS: Questionnaire data were collected at the conclusion of an educational workshop on disaster response. RESULTS: Participants reported increased confidence in clinical skills and the ability to avoid exposure while providing care to victims of terrorist attacks as a result of the workshop. Fewer than one third (32%) of participants reported that their employer was prepared for a bioterrorism attack, and a large percentage (75%) reported feeling unprepared to provide mental health counseling after a terrorist attack. CONCLUSIONS: Relatively brief training in terrorism preparedness can increase the confidence of occupational health professionals in their ability to respond to terrorism. Adequate preparedness for the broad range of potential terrorist events may require much more intensive training than is currently being provided to occupational health professionals.     

Crosscutting competencies for occupational health and safety professionals.

A change from a quarter system to a semester system presented a convenient opportunity for faculty at the Midwest Center for Occupational Health and Safety (a 27-year-old National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health-sponsored education and research center) to evaluate the current curriculum. As part of this process faculty identified both individual and crosscutting competencies for four programs: Occupational Medicine, Occupational Health Nursing, Industrial Hygiene, and Occupational Injury Epidemiology and Control. Faculty identified potential competency sets using published literature, course objectives, and content summaries. Common themes, termed crosscutting competencies, were identified. Seventy program graduates (58%) responded to a survey designed to assess the value of, and proficiency in, these competencies based on their postgraduation job experience. All 29 crosscutting competencies were rated as valuable or very valuable by respondents in each of the four programs. There was less agreement between respondents in proficiency ratings, with 24 of 29 competencies rated either proficient or very proficient. Comparing value and proficiency provided an opportunity to further refine the curriculum and a model for enhancing the skills, knowledge, and attitudes of future environmental and occupational health professionals. With further testing, we propose this set of crosscutting competencies be considered for adoption as a set of interdisciplinary core competencies for Occupational Health and Safety professionals.     

A review of the organization of occupational health and safety and occupational hygiene in Britain

Summary Britain's Health and Safety at Work Act introduced in 1974 marked a change in approach to occupational health and safety which is having important long-term effects on the organization of occupational health and safety in Britain. The purpose of this paper is to outline the broad principles of approach to health and safety at work contained within the 1974 Act; highlight the implications of the new Act for employers, managers, employees, and representative organizations, and discuss the developments in the organization of occupational health and safety as a result of the 1974 Act.

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Die Organisation der Arbeitsmedzin, Arbeitssicherheit und Arbeitshygiene in Grossbritannien

Zusammenfassung Im Jahre 1974 wurde in Grossbritannien ein Gesetz über Arbeitsmedizin und Arbeitssicherheit eingeführt, das das Problem neu angeht und die Organisation der Arbeitsmedizin und Arbeitssicherheit in diesem Land auf lange Sicht in starkem Masse beeinflussen wird. Der Zweck dieser Arbeit ist es, die diesem Gesetz zugrundeliegenden Prinzipien darzustellen, auf die Auswirkungen des neuen Gesetzes auf Arbeitgeber, Betriebsleiter, Arbeitnehmer und ihre Organisationen hinzuweisen, und die Entwicklung zu besprechen, die seit 1974 im Rahmen der Organisation der Arbeitsmedizin und Arbeitssicherheit als Resultat der neuen Gesetzgebung zu verzeichnen sind.

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L'organisation de la médecine du travail et de l'hygiène et de la sécurité professionnelles en Grande-Bretagne

Résumé L'introduction en 1974 du «Britain's Health and Safety at Work Act» a marqué dans les conceptions et l'approche de l'hygiène et de la sécurité professionnelles un changement qui aura à long terme des effets importants sur l'organisation de ces disciplines. Le propos de ce travail est de souligner les principes généraux de cette approche, contenus dans l'Acte de 1974, de montrer les implications de ce nouvel Acte sur les organisations d'employeurs, de chefs d'entreprises, d'employés et de représentants de l'administration, de discuter les développements dans l'organisation de l'hygiène et la sécurité du travail qui en résultent.

     

Estimating and controlling workplace risk: an approach for occupational hygiene and safety professionals

The protection of people and physical assets is the objective of health and safety professionals and is accomplished through the paradigm of anticipation, recognition, evaluation, and control of risks in the occupational environment. Risk assessment concepts are not only used by health and safety professionals, but also by business and financial planners. Since meeting health and safety objectives requires financial resources provided by business and governmental managers, the hypothesis addressed here is that health and safety risk decisions should be made with probabilistic processes used in financial decision-making and which are familiar and recognizable to business and government planners and managers. This article develops the processes and demonstrates the use of incident probabilities, historic outcome information, and incremental impact analysis to estimate risk of multiple alternatives in the chemical process industry. It also analyzes how the ethical aspects of decision-making can be addressed in formulating health and safety risk management plans. It is concluded that certain, easily understood, and applied probabilistic risk assessment methods used by business and government to assess financial and outcome risk have applicability to improving workplace health and safety in three ways: 1) by linking the business and health and safety risk assessment processes to securing resources, 2) by providing an additional set of tools for health and safety risk assessment, and 3) by requiring the risk assessor to consider multiple risk management alternatives.     

10家企业员工职业卫生服务及职业卫生知识和安全健康知识需求调查

目的 研究员工职业卫生服务、职业卫生知识和安全健康知识需求情况.方法 使用统一的调查表对10家企业2755名员工进行职业卫生服务、职业卫生知识和安全健康知识需求调查,使用Epidata3.0软件编制录入程序,SAS 9.0软件进行统计分析.结果　93.1%的员工希望了解作业场所存在的职业危害因素,96.8%的员工希望获得个体职业病防护用品,95.7%的员工希望参加职业健康检查.在职业卫生知识方面,员工对职业病和工作相关疾病防治知识需求最高,为88.3%,工作压力相关知识最低,为61.2%.在安全健康知识方面,职业卫生与安全的工作环境知识最高,为84.8%,性健康知识最低,为25.7%.石化行业对大多数职业卫生知识和安全健康知识的需求高于其他行业,并且大多数职业卫生知识和安全健康知识的需求随着文化程度的提高而升高.结论 员工具有较高的职业卫生服务、职业卫生知识和安全健康知识需求,文化程度对职业卫生知识和安全健康知识有很大的影响,并且各行业间需求差异很大,在健康教育过程中要考虑文化程度和行业这两个因素.     

职业健康安全管理体系与职业卫生管理相结合初探

目的探索职业健康管理体系与职业卫生管理相结合的管理模式。方法制定并实施与国家法律、法规相适应的文件。结果企业管理人员及职工能自觉按照文件进行标准化作业。结论采用职业健康管理体系与职业卫生管理相结合的方法,能促进企业完成年初制定的职业健康安全目标,并为职业病的预防打下良好的基础。     

Development of occupational safety and health training programs in Poland

The author describes a Polish-Swedish cooperative venture to develop curricula and training materials in the area of occupational safety and health. The resulting courses, which are consonant with the mandates of the revised Polish Labor Code, have been used to train yearly 1,300 people, including employers, employees, and 300 new trainers. A project to extend such training to workplaces is under way.     

Relationships between public health, urban hygiene and occupational hygiene

Overall, people these days are more at risk in their everyday lives than when they are at work, largely owing to the remarkable contributions made by sanitary science to public health, so that since 1900 causes of death have changed completely. However, this statistical picture of a healthier nation conceals considerable differences in health status between social classes, so that a different approach is required by public health professionals. Therefore health agencies in Sheffield are collaborating with trade union safety committees and community and ethnic minority groups in adopting health promotion policies with regard to clear air, healthy food, physical fitness and safety at work.     

Evaluation of occupational health and industrial hygiene services

Summary A working group on Evaluation of Occupational Health and Industrial Hygiene Services (OHS) met in Stockholm in April 1980. The conference was organised by the Regional WHO-Office in cooperation with the government of Sweden. The participants of this meeting, in spite of the severe differences in the health systems of their countries, came to some conclusions for the definition of the OHS-goals and about the needed proceedings for evaluation of OHS on national bases. Recommendations for member countries of WHO in Europe for use in a coming plenary session of this board were also worked out.