Medical Surveillance

When dealing with hazardous wastes, workers often experience high levels of stress: their work tasks could possibly expose them to toxic chemicals, site safety hazards, biological hazards, and even radiation. They could also experience life-threatening emergencies, such as explosions or chemical waste leaks or fires. As another example, they could develop heat stress while wearing protective equipment.

Because of these hazards, it is vital to have a well planned medical program that assesses and monitors worker health. In order to monitor and identify hazards and track employee health, this must begin prior to employment and must also be ongoing.

OSHA suggests that surveillance is a "feedback loop to the employer" because its information regarding medical issues with personnel may be indicative of undetected hazards in the workplace. Medical surveillance serves the following purposes:

• Helps to identify potential problem areas on a work site
• Makes it possible to evaluate the effectiveness of an existing worksite's preventative safety strategies
• Ensures workers are physically capable of completing the tasks they will be assigned
• Provides a more active (rather than reactive) approach to workplace safety
• Assesses and monitors workers' health prior to employment and also during the course of employment
• Helps to provide proper emergency and non-emergency treatments (when needed)
• Assists with any future epidemiological studies (studies related to diseases)
• Aids when adjudicating claims and when providing evidence (should litigation occur)
• Reports each worker's medical conditions (either to federal, state, and local agencies, as required by law)

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