Custodial Ergonomics to Modify Training Procedures
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1 A SIMPLIFIED, QUALITATIVE STRATEGY FOR THE ASSESSMENT OF OCCUPATIONAL RISKS AND SELECTION OF SOLUTIONS: CONTROL BANDING EEN VEREENVOUDIGDE KWALITATIEVE METHODE OM BEROEPSGEBONDEN RISICO’S TE BEPALEN EN OPLOSSINGEN TE SELECTEREN: CONTROL BANDING Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Technische Universiteit Delft, op gezag van de Rector Magnificus Prof.ir. K.C.A.M. Luyben voorzitter van het College voor Promoties, in het openbaar te verdedigen op woensdag 22 december om 10.00 uur door David Mark ZALK Masters of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley geboren te Boston, Massachusetts, Verenigde Staten 2 Dit proefschrift is goedgekeurd door de promotor: Prof.dr. A. R. Hale Copromotor Dr. P.H.J.J. Swuste Samenstelling promotiecommissie: Rector Magnificus, voorzitter Prof.dr. A.R. Hale, Delft University of Technology, promoter Dr. P.H.J.J. Swuste, Delft University of Technology, copromotor Prof.dr P.Vink, Delft University of Technology Prof.dr. F.J,H, van Dijk, University of Amsterdam, Academic Medical Center Prof.dr.ir. A. Burdorf, Erasmus University, Rotterdam Prof. M.P. Guillemin, Lausanne University, Switzerland Dr. P.W. Johnson, University of Washington, USA ISBN 978-1-4507-4664-6 This work performed, in part, under the auspices of the US Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344. LLNL-BOOK-461828 3 A simplified, qualitative strategy for the assessment of occupational risks and selection of solutions: Control Banding by David M. Zalk 4 Het volmaakte is de vijand van het goede. The perfect is the enemy of the good. 2010, D.M. Zalk Cover photograph by D.M. Zalk Cover photo: Shipbreaking in South Africa All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form by print, photoprint, microfilm or any other means without written permission of the rightful claimant(s). This restriction concerns the entire publication or any part of it. 5 FOREWORD L‘chayim! In Hebrew it is a toast that means ―to life‖ and is said when drinking to a person‘s health or well-being. As the completion of this thesis is indeed a celebration, it is important to give thanks to all those who have given assistance to get me to this milestone. Of course, I am grateful to Andrew Hale my promoter and Paul Swuste, my good friend and instigator, for his guidance. I would especially like to thank my parents and brother. To my mother, Sophia, for paving the way for this opportunity by being an example of excellence and having full faith in my potential. To my father, Bertram, for his inspiring me to make a difference in the world. To my brother, Reuven, for his bringing smiles to those around him as well as his religious inspiration to the family. I would also like to thank my father-in-law, Dr. Marvin Kirsh, for his strong and continual support and my late mother-in-law, Helen Kirsh, for her eternal optimism for my potential to succeed. This effort could not have been accomplished without my friends and colleagues, both at LLNL and around the world, who have helped throughout this journey and whom I always feel blessed to have in my life. I would especially like to thank Paul Oldershaw for his groundbreaking Control Banding vision and Berenice Goelzer for her longstanding support and encouragement for keeping things simple on behalf of the world‘s workers. Thanks to the International Occupational Hygiene Association for their support of Control Banding globally. Much of the US Control Banding work could not have been done without the help of the Control Bandits, with a special thanks to my longstanding partner in crime Deborah Imel Nelson. Then there‘s my best work ever, my three boys. To Joshua, whose strength to overcome obstacles is an inspiration; Jacob, whose humor and compassion are endless; and Jesse, my loving baby bear and dancing machine. Of course, no great work can be built without a solid foundation. My wife Janice is indeed that foundation, the love of my life. She has given me undying support, through highs and lows, and encompassing all things important to me. She is the laugh that breeds smiles and an amazing mother to my boys. However, the real inspiration for this thesis is all the workers who have taught me how to be a better professional and human being. This is especially true for all the workers I have not met, and will not meet, whose daily efforts put them at unnecessary risk. They do this so they can go home to their families and put bread on their table. In the Talmud it is said ―saving one life is like saving the entire world‖; this is the essence of preventing worker exposures to unnecessary risks and the cornerstone of my dedication to completing this thesis. To the over 2.5 billion workers who have never seen a health and safety professional, I offer the efforts of my work and a heartfelt L‘chayim! 6 CONTENTS LIST CHAPTERS Chapter 1 Introduction 8 Chapter 2 History and evolution of control banding: a review. Published: Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene 16 Chapter 3 Examination and evaluation of custodial ergonomics to modify training procedures. Published: Professional Safety 39 Chapter 4 Evaluating the control banding nanotool: a qualitative risk assessment method for controlling nanoparticle exposures. Published: Journal of Nanoparticle Research 49 Chapter 5 Review of qualitative approaches for the construction industry; designing a risk management toolbox. Submitted: Annals of Occupational Hygiene 69 Chapter 6 Risk level based management system: a control banding model for occupational health and safety risk management in a highly regulated environment. Published: Industrial Health 88 Chapter 7 Barrier Banding: a concept for safety solutions utilizing control banding principles. Submitted: Safety Science 102 Chapter 8 Discussion and Concluding Remarks 117 APPENDICES Appendix A Application of a pilot control banding tool for risk level assessment and control of nanoparticle exposures. Published: Annals of Occupational Hygiene 123 Appendix B Grassroots ergonomics: initiating an ergonomics program utilizing participatory techniques. Published: Annals of Occupational Hygiene 137 Appendix C Participatory Occupational Hygiene; a path to practical solutions. Published: Asian-Pacific Newsletter 145 Appendix D IOHA/ICOH Declaration on Occupational Hygiene. Published: Asian-Pacific Newsletter 147 Appendix E – Carpenter shop wood dust control - practical experience to reduce hardwood dust exposures below the ACGIH TLV. Published: Applied Occupational and Environmental Hygiene 151 ACRONYM GLOSSARY 168 REFERENCES 170 SUMMARY 183 CURRICULUM VITAE 184 7 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Control Banding and Solutions Around the world there are 2.8 billion workers. Due to occupational risk annually there are 2.3 million deaths, 270 million non-fatal injuries, and 160 million work-related diseases for the global workforce (Takala 2010; ILO 2005a; Fingerhut et al., 2005). These injuries and illnesses cost more then 5% of the worldwide Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (ILO 2005b). To assist in identifying solutions toward preventing these injuries and illnesses for the 2.8 billion workers globally, World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that, at best, 10 – 15% of these workers have access to a basic standard of occupational health services (WHO 2003). Therefore, approximately 2.5 billion of the world‘s workers do not have access to occupational safety, health, and hygiene (OSHH) professionals and their ability to address and reduce occupational risks that lead to the occurrence of work-related illnesses, diseases, and safety-related accidents and injuries is very limited. The multidisciplinary risks that workers face, as well as the adverse outcomes that often result, are well understood in the OSHH scientific literature. What has been lacking in this literature is a simplified strategy for delivering solutions to the 2.5 billion workers facing unnecessary occupational risks on a daily basis. In the not too distant past international experts were in agreement that the scarcity of solutions within the OSHH scientific literature was an issue requiring improvement (Swuste 1996, Roelofs et al. 2003). In recent years a strategy for qualitative occupational risk management (ORM) has gained international attention and has provided a robust framework for improvement (Nelson and Zalk 2010). This strategy, known as Control Banding, offers a simplified approach for reducing work-related risks. The objective of Control Banding is to develop a qualitative risk assessment that stratifies a given workplace hazard across -usually- four levels or ‗bands‘ of risk that are placed in a risk matrix, using four risk levels of severity on one axis and the probability of outcome on the other axis, with the outcome (intersecting point from the two axes) leading directly to control solutions. This means that there is an opportunity to deliver preventive methods to reduce occupational risks for workers lacking access to OSHH experts. This success with Control Banding and its solutions-based focus has also presented a quandary in the world of the occupational hygiene sciences, where quantification is historically king. Control Banding uses a less rigid, qualitative approach, since even some of the long considered state-of-the-art, literature-based scientific findings OSHH professionals rely on change on a regular basis. In this respect the European Union (EU) is learning cutting edge Control Banding lessons from India and the United States (US) is being educated by recent Control Banding developments in Chile (Fingerhut 2008). It is Control Banding‘s simplification in reducing work-related exposures, and changing the science of quantitative risk assessment to the art and science of qualitative risk assessment, that is redefining ORM. However, within this simplification is the fundamental question of whether Control Banding can achieve risk reduction comparable to quantitative methods. The success of Control Banding did not occur in isolation.