Wisconsin State Program Launches “Chemicals in the Workplace” Dashboard

A new dashboard from the Wisconsin Department of Health Services uses data from federal OSHA to provide information about chemical exposure risk profiles for workers in different industries in the United States. The information displayed by the dashboard is based on industrial hygiene sampling data collected by OSHA compliance officers to monitor workers’ exposures to chemical hazards during agency investigations. The dashboard allows users to view the chemicals most frequently detected during OSHA inspections and to filter by factors including industry and health effects.

Wisconsin’s Department of Health Services explains that it extracted OSHA’s chemical exposure health data on a five-year rolling basis and linked that dataset to the Alphabetic Index of OSHA Occupational Chemical Database to obtain chemicals’ synonyms and Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) registry numbers. The dashboard excludes testing records such as blank samples, self-sampling records by OSHA compliance officers, and specific substances like combustible material, endotoxins, and ionizing radiation. Additional details about data selection can be found in the “technical notes” section on the department’s webpage for the dashboard.

The dashboard is featured in the March issue of NIOSH’s monthly e-newsletter along with other news from the agency’s partners. It is freely available via the Wisconsin Department of Health Services website.