F. Parker, Caliche Ltd., Magnolia, TX.
Given the litigious nature of our society, industrial hygiene (IH) program managers should be concerned about their orgainization’s vunerability to litigation. Twenty-five years of personal professional involvement in toxic tort litigation were reviewed, and the major IH subjects used as the technical basis for toxic tort lawsuits were identified. This presentation will review the major IH issues identified, describe how they impact occupational health programs, and provide recommendations to minimize current and future liability.
R. Hartman, A. Einhorn, R. Suh, Defense Threat Reduction Agency, Alexandria, VA.
Corporations and governments are increasingly recognizing the advantages of efficiently incorporating environmental, safety, and occupational health (ESOH) programs into their day-to-day processes, procedures, and culture. Two widely used tools for accomplishing this task are (1) the International Organization for Standardization’s (ISO) 14001 standard for environmental management systems development and (2) the Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series (OHSAS) 18001 standard for safety and occupational health management systems. Unfortunately, the separation of environmental management from safety and occupational health management into two distinct standards usually stimulates the creation of two distinct programs within an organization. Such a separation often detrimentally impacts programmatic efficiency and effective ESOH management. In January 2005, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) began developing an ESOH management system (ESOHMS) that simultaneously integrated both the ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 standards to address environmental, safety, and occupational health issues. To date, the DTRA ESOHMS concept has improved communications across agency lines, managerial oversight of projects, and awareness and prioritization of ESOH issues. DTRA further improved its processes following the purchase of ESOHMS software designed specifically for public entities. This presentation will highlight programmatic successes, address barriers to ESOHMS implementation, and demonstrate the effectiveness of ESOHMS software in supporting ESOHMS development activities.
T. Oberlin, 3M, St. Paul, MN.
Lean manufacturing is a management philosophy focusing on the reduction of wastes, such as rework, waiting, storage, excess inventory, unnecessary motion, overprocessing, and overproduction. Typically “lean” is used to eliminate waste, improve quality, reduce production time, and cut costs. Key lean manufacturing principles include: make to order, single-piece “pull” production, just-in-time materials, reduced inventory, short cycle times, flexible machines and processes, and quick changeover. Lean is all about getting the right things to the right place, at the right time, and in the right quantity, while minimizing waste and being flexible and open to change. Virtually every lean tool has potential environmental health and safety (EHS) benefits, many of which are covered in this presentation. Coupling EHS objectives with lean objectives can be a powerful method of achieving EHS improvement. EHS can be incorporated into lean initiatives in a company and lean tools can be applied to EHS systems, both creating many positive benefits for EHS people, programs, and the company. Active participation by site EHS staff in lean events can enhance their level of process knowledge, credibility, and overall value to the enterprise. This presentation will include both plant and corporate perspectives on ways to capitalize on the EHS opportunities within the lean initiative.
J. Kearney, Bristol Myers Squibb, Syracuse, NY.
A Fortune 500 company sought to establish global guidelines for technical, industry, and business knowledge for all levels of environmental health and safety (EHS) staff, from operations to vice president. Designed as a career development tool, the guidelines have potential uses for EHS professionals looking to advance as well as for EHS managers. The presenters will share the steps in the exercise, the outcomes of the process, and the impacts and benefits to the company.
D. Bourcier, Avchem Inc., Kent, WA; L. Tibert, National Quality Assurance, Acton, MA.
The opportunity for industry to take advantage of integration of management systems has never been timelier. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO), with the release of ISO 14001:2004, has taken steps to ensure that that standard aligns with the ISO 9001:2000 standard. The recent release of the ANSI Z10 OHS Management System Standard in the United States, along with the growing acceptance of the OHSAS 18001 has initiated greater emphasis on standards integration as well as combined audits. Common elements and language make implementation and auditing easier than in the past. The purpose of the present study was to develop plans for third-party auditing as well as internal audits of an organization registered to the three standards. Added components are (1) the registration to the aerospace version of the ISO 9001:2000, the AS9100, Rev. B, for a chemical management services company, and (2) the requirement to develop a multisite audit plan. Developing the third-party audit and internal audit program was a project was undertaken by both the registrar and the organization audited, respectively. With regard to the third-party registration process, the registrar reviewed all current guidelines for both the development of the multisite registration plan as well as the guidelines for the auditing process itself. A similar process was used by the auditing organization but with more flexibility due to the more limited requirements. Using several examples of components of the multisite plan as well as the auditing criteria itself, the third-party registrar was able to develop a viable audit process and plan. With respect to the organization’s audit process, the implementation of the plan required the integrated quality, environmental, and safety management system audit at each of its 13 locations throughout the United States and Canada; this complemented internal regulatory audits. The resultant audit checklist included common elements of all three standards.
L. Chalk, Boeing Co., Seattle, WA.
Boeing determined that a more robust support infrastructure for environmental health and safety (EHS) services should be pursued at minor locations. The scope of the project was limited to the minor sites within the Integrated Defense System (IDS) business unit (about 240 sites, with employee populations below 500). The project goals included improvements in communication, integration, and tools for risk management. One of the tools for risk management was to be an EHS services evaluation model, to be used in re-evaluating EHS head-count needs and in predicting EHS head-count needs for sites being planned or in development. A review of the literature did not turn up any tools applicable to the goal. Several small sites were visited to evaluate unique EHS issues. A draft tool was developed, then reviewed by numerous EHS leaders and stakeholders, then beta-tested in the field. Issues with development included factoring in start-up vs. development vs. mature sites, politics of tool usage that could lead to unjustified requests for more head count or hiding deficiency of staff numbers, and business unit vs. geographical alignment of employees. Final reviews by senior leadership and the legal department resulted in modifications to expand the application of the tool to major sites and the addition of law-related notations, respectively. The model has been made available to the Boeing IDS EHS community and has been used in a number of cases to evaluate current head count. Feedback from users indicates that it is a useful tool, capable of accurately predicting head count. Applicability should be able to cross industry lines and light-vs.-heavy manufacturing scenarios. The tool appears to be a useful tool among other methods to gauge the right head count for sites, whether predicting for planned sites, sites in development, or well-established sites.
J. Zey, S. Hutchinson, L. Ferguson, University of Central Missouri, Warrensburg, MO.
During the later stages of the 20th century, more formal and systematic assessment activities were infused into occupational safety and health (OSH) academic programs. Pressure for program assessment comes from oversight bodies, university administration, and the public. Several large companies insist on accreditation before interviewing candidates for entry-level OSH positions. The military requires training candidates to apply to accredited academic programs. Program assessment can be accomplished in many ways, including exit exams and interviews of graduating students, surveys of alumni or practitioners, curriculum reviews, and other reviews by advisory boards. One additional avenue for assessing the quality of an academic program is to evaluate the percentage of alumni who remain in the discipline, attain certifications, and are active in national professional organizations. Sources of information for this research include the directories and websites of AIHA, ACGIH, ABET, and historical program documents from the University of Central Missouri (UCM). Preliminary analysis revealed that approximately 50% of the alumni have obtained the certification of certified industrial hygienist (CIH), certified satefy professional (CSP), or a similar certification. Approximately 70% of the industrial hygiene (IH) graduates are still working in the occupational health, occupational safety, or environmental field. In addition, 33% of the AIHA technical committees and 26% of the ACGIH technical committees have members who are alumni of UCM. These data suggest the program has been successfully producing employable IHs over 30 years. The authors believe that such data can be used by academic OSH programs for both internal and external assessment reviews.
A. Bracker, T. Morse, University of Connecticut, Farmington, CT.
Control banding is a chemical risk management model that has received international acclaim. It is an innovative approach that builds on health and safety committees’ expertise and experience to identify and remedy workplace hazards. The model can be used to complement the traditional air sampling approach to risk assessment so that limited health and safety dollars can be directed to exposure prevention and controls. Connecticut was one of the first states to provide training on this control focused tool. Health and safety committees from a diverse group of workplaces attended a series of control banding workshops. Through several hands-on interactive activities, workshop participants learned how to use COSHH Essentials, a control banding toolkit. After the workshops the participants were asked to evaluate the course materials and the utility of the model. The participants’ responses to three questions will be presented: (1) Did the model capture the qualitative variables health and safety committees currently use to evaluate chemical exposure risk? (2) Did the committees successfully use the model to evaluate tasks in their workplaces? and (3) Were the control recommendations (bands) generated by the model consistent with the controls that the committees and/or health and safety professionals would have identified for these tasks?
J. Testo, Delta Environmental Consultants Inc., Troy, NY; M. Tranter, Delta Consultants, Chicago, IL.
Environmental health and safety (EHS) training is an integral component of any EHS management system. As EHS professionals, we often develop or provide this training. However, when the training is riddled with bullet points and overloaded with jargon, long sentences, and technical data, our audiences often switch off within the first 10 minutes. The key to unlocking interest in EHS communication is to reveal the story. This session provides tools and practical tips for developing and presenting technical EHS training to employees as well as influencing senior decision makers by telling a story. It describes a method for building the narrative and using visuals that focus, clarify, and engage an audience without resorting to a graphic artist or training consultant. This session will offer insight into the art of presentation by bringing together ideas about the right mix of message and media as well as ideas on how to communicate complicated information in a meaningful and memorable way.