Safe Use of Nickel in the Workplace: Risk Assessment for Workers
6. ASSESSING THE RISKS OF WORKERS EXPOSED TO NICKEL
Any efforts to evaluate
occupational health risks such as those identified in Chapter 5 must
start with good data collection. This includes not only monitoring
workplace exposures (discussed in Chapter 7),
but assessing the health of individual workers with the ultimate goal
of keeping the worker healthy and reducing the overall risks in the
work environment. It is not enough to periodically monitor workers, but
programs must be implemented in ways that allow for the systematic
collection of data that can be used in epidemiological studies and,
subsequently, risk assessment. In some countries, implementation of a
health surveillance program is obligatory. In such instances, any
company-based surveillance program should be in compliance with the
relevant local/national guidelines. Developing infrastructure and
systems that support consistent data collection and storage requires
effort, careful planning, and an adequate allocation of resources. It
means enlisting the total commitment and cooperation of the most senior
members of the management team (starting with the CEO) to the most
junior constituents of the labor force. A number of specific steps have
been identified as being basic to setting up a data collection system
for quantitative risk assessment (Verma et al., 1996; ICME, 19991 ). These are discussed below, in a modified form, with particular reference to nickel where appropriate.
1The International Council on Metals and the Environment, now known as the International Council on Mining and Metals.