Occupational health in manufacturing
Health issues in the manufacturing industry will vary depending on what is being manufactured. Whether fridges or foods, heart valves or subsea valves, each will have their own hazards and risks. Health issues in manufacturing can include:
- Flour and other food dusts - Exposure to flour dusts can cause respiratory disease such as occupational asthma and hypersensitivity pneumonitis.
- Manual Handling & Awkward Postures - Heavy lifting, poor postures, prolonged static, repetitive or forceful movements can cause musculo-skeletal disorders.
- Spray paints and coatings - Exposure to spray paints and coatings can cause skin problems and respiratory disease such as occupational asthma.
- Noise - Exposure to noise can cause hearing loss and tinnitus.
- Vibration - Exposure to vibration can cause neurological damage, circulatory damage, and musculo-skeletal disorders.
- Sickness Absence - Sickness absence can cause disruption to production and additional pressure on colleagues.
Our fleet of mobile screening units are hygienic, spacious and fitted with an audiometry booth to promote an optimum environment for professional and convenient health assessments on your site.Â
The vehicles and office-based clinics have been adapted to ensure a highest level of COVID security.
Our clinical teams are highly trained to perform, interpret tests and feedback immediately to your employees so they understand the value of their health check and can take proactive steps to manage their personal health.
Health Surveillance is required if:
- Work is known to damage health in some particular way and it is reasonably likely that damage to health may occur under the particular conditions at work.
- There have been previous cases of work-related ill health in the workforce/place.
- There is a reliance on PPE e.g. gloves or face masks as an exposure control measure.
The need for health surveillance should be identified by your risk assessment process.
Examples of where health surveillance is appropriate under the criteria in COSHH Regulation 11(2)(b) are:
- Where there have been previous cases of work-related ill health in the workforce/place;
- Where there is a reliance on PPE, e.g. gloves or respirators, as an exposure control measure; e.g. printers wearing gloves to protect against solvents used during press cleaning, or paint sprayers using two-pack paints wearing respirators to prevent asthma. Even with the closest supervision there is no guarantee PPE will be effective at all times;
- Where there is evidence of ill health in jobs within the industry; e.g. frequent or prolonged contact with water (termed wet-working) causing dermatitis in hairdressers and healthcare workers, or breathing in mists from chrome plating baths causing chrome ulcers in platers.’
- We strongly recommend avoiding blanket screening for all employees as it can provide misleading management results and waste money that could be spent on improving controls.
Free Health Risk Assessment
Tailored health surveillance and screening
Peritus Health Management is quality accredited to the Faculty of Occupational Medicine’s SEQOHS standards and provides appropriate and tailored health surveillance and health screening at our site or yours including:
- Audiometry for Noise-Induced Hearing Loss.
- Breathing surveillance for asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases caused by food dusts, soldering fume, spray paints and coatings, isocyanate foams and resins, and other sensitisers and irritants.
- Skin checks for dermatitis caused by wet-work, greases, prolonged glove use, cleaning fluids, and other sensitisers and irritants.
- Hand-arm vibration assessments (Tier 1 – 3 with Tier 4 arranged centrally and 5 arranged at specialist centres) for hand transmitted vibration exposure and poor ergonomic positioning when using hand tools.
- Fitness for work checks for new starters, food handlers, drivers.
Peritus Health Management’s integrated approach to health risk management provides a comprehensive service managing all these areas competently and professionally.
