Integration of Pollution Prevention and Occupational Health and Safety.
Source: Toxics Use Reduction Institute, Tech Report 50, Lowell, MA. Please contact Library Manager.
Integration of Pollution Prevention and Occupational Health and Safety.
Abstract
Polllution prevention, considered primary prevention, is based in technologies that prevent the possibility of harm from chemicals in industrial processes. Secondary prevention, on the other hand, only reduces the probability of harm from an industrial process. Traditional occupational health practice predominantly utilizes secondary prevention strategies, including disease surveillance and medical treatment in public health, and "end-of-pipe" controls in exposure reduction.
Occupational and environmental health issues are not always considered simultaneously when attempting to reduce or eliminate hazardous materials. Methods to decrease exposure to hazardous chemicals in the workplace frequently lead to increased exposure in the environmental and to the community outside the workplace. On the other hand, controls places on emissions of hazardous chemicals into the environment can lead to increased exposure to the workers inside the plant. There are governmnet regulations in place that ensure a safe work environment or a safe outside environment; however, there is little integration of both approaches when considering the public's health as a whole.
Pollution prevention, as primary prevention, has the ability to shift occupational health strategies from control to prevention, where exposure prevention preceded exposure control. There is a need to address the relationship between environmental and occupational health, requiring a reevaluation of industrial hygiene control activities from a perspective of primary protection. There has been a fundamental change in the methods of environmental health management, from end-of-pipe pollution control to comprehensive pollution prevention interventions. A way to develop the same fundamental change of methods in occupational health management (i.e., from exposure control to exposure prevention) needs to be explored.
This study focuses on aspects of the relationship between pollution prevention (P2) and occupational health. It evaluates the effects of pollution prevention intervention programs (i.e., toxics use reduction) on worker safety and health at three Massachusetts printed wire board manufacturing facilities. Most important, it focuses on primary prevention (in the form of P2) and how this model benefits both the environment and the worker. In addition, it provides useful feedback on what motivates companies to approach environmental and occupational compliance issues as a single concern.
Author: K.Armenti, armeka@comcast.net. 2000
Related Article: Armenti, K. R., 2003. Joint Occupational and Environmental Pollution Prevention Strategies: A Model for Primary Prevention. New Solutions, Vol. 13(3) 241:259. Baywood Publishing Co., Inc.
This page updated Wednesday July 21 2004