MODULE 6: Safety and Environmental Impacts-Medical Screening and Surveillance

Video Transcription

Video Summary

In this video, Virginia Weaver, a medical officer in the Office of Occupational Medicine and Nursing at OSHA, discusses medical screening and surveillance. She explains that medical screening is a program focused on diagnosing diseases or adverse health outcomes in individual workers, and it should be done before exposure to occupational hazards and periodically thereafter. On the other hand, medical surveillance involves the ongoing collection, analysis, and dissemination of data for prevention and control. The goals of screening and surveillance programs include compliance with legal requirements, early detection and treatment of diseases, prevention of diseases in coworkers, cost savings, and detection of previously unrecognized health effects. Weaver also talks about the importance of accurate and up-to-date OSHA standards and guidance, as well as other resources such as the ACGIH's threshold limit values, NIOSH's recommended exposure limits, and the ATSDR's toxicological profiles. She emphasizes the need for a group effort in setting up screening and surveillance programs and the importance of analyzing the data and taking appropriate actions. Weaver concludes by mentioning the challenges of screening a healthy population and the need to use biomarkers and consider other resources to improve screening efficacy.

Keywords

medical screening

medical surveillance

occupational hazards

compliance

disease detection

OSHA standards

ACGIH threshold limit values

NIOSH recommended exposure limits

ATSDR toxicological profiles