A Hazardous Substance Exposure Prevention Rating Method for Intervention Needs Assessment and Effectiveness Evaluation: The Small Business Exposure Index

Details

• Personal Author:
  LaMontagne AD ; Roelofs C ; Sapp AL ; Sembajwe G ; Sorensen, Glorian ; Stoddard AM
• Description:
  AIMS: This paper describes the refinement and adaptation to small business of a previously developed method for systematically prioritizing needs for intervention on hazardous substance exposures in manufacturing worksites, and evaluating intervention effectiveness. METHODS: We developed a checklist containing six unique sets of yes/no variables organized in a 2 x 3 matrix of exposure potential versus exposure protection at three levels corresponding to a simplified hierarchy of controls: materials, processes, and human interface. Each of the six sets of indicator variables was reduced to a high/moderate/low rating. Ratings from the matrix were then combined to generate an exposure prevention 'Small Business Exposure Index' (SBEI) Summary score for each area. Reflecting the hierarchy of controls, material factors were weighted highest, followed by process, and then human interface. The checklist administered by an industrial hygienist during walk-through inspection (N = 149 manufacturing processes/areas in 25 small to medium-sized manufacturing worksites). One area or process per manufacturing department was assessed and rated. A second hygienist independently assessed 36 areas to evaluate inter-rater reliability. RESULTS: The SBEI Summary scores indicated that exposures were well controlled in the majority of areas assessed (58% with rating of 1 or 2 on a 6-point scale), that there was some room for improvement in roughly one-third of areas (31% of areas rated 3 or 4), and that roughly 10% of the areas assessed were urgently in need of intervention (rated as 5 or 6). Inter-rater reliability of EP ratings was good to excellent (e.g., for SBEI Summary scores, weighted kappa = 0.73, 95% CI 0.52-0.93). CONCLUSION: The SBEI exposure prevention rating method is suitable for use in small/medium enterprises, has good discriminatory power and reliability, offers an inexpensive method for intervention needs assessment and effectiveness evaluation, and complements quantitative exposure assessment with an upstream prevention focus. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Environmental Exposure Environmental Health Environmental Monitoring Environmental Pollution Epidemiology Hazardous Substances Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Risk Assessment Risk Factors Safety Workplace

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• Keywords:
  Analytical-processes Environmental-exposure Environmental-factors Environmental-hazards Environmental-health Exposure-assessment Exposure-levels Exposure-methods Hazardous-materials Injury-prevention Occupational-exposure Occupational-health Occupational-safety-programs Qualitative-analysis Risk-factors Statistical-analysis Work-environment Work-operations Work-practices Worker-health Workplace-studies

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• ISSN:
  1476-069X
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Massachusetts ; OSHA Region 1
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  10
• Volume:
  8
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20035851
• Citation:
  Environ Health 2009 Mar; 8:10
• Contact Point Address:
  Anthony D LaMontagne, McCaughey Centre: VicHealth Centre for the Promotion of Mental Health & Community Wellbeing, Melbourne School of Population Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC 3010, Australia
• Email:
  alamonta@unimelb.edu.au
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2009
• NORA Priority Area:
  Research Tools and Approaches: Intervention Effectiveness Research
• Performing Organization:
  Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  19990930
• Source Full Name:
  Environmental Health: A Global Access Science Source
• End Date:
  20030929
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:432e1d3ebec17fb176f3edb13eac1a2abbb295ee53bc155db78256ee5e97216b8f34a2f9f0b7e25fabc8f9e2761373ff3ef28509aa4d5651f102eed8a22598e3
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/187544/cdc_187544_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 348.14 KB ]