Health surveillance and screening
Health surveillance is a system of ongoing health checks for disease that may be caused by work activities.
The checks may be required by law for employees who are exposed to noise, vibration, ionising radiation, solvents, lead, fumes, dusts, biological agents and other substances hazardous to health, or work in compressed air.
Peritus Health provides:
- Targeted health surveillance at your site or ours.
- Convenient and hygienic mobile screening units fitted with audiometry booths.
- Bespoke portal system to support management information and robust recall system.
- SEQOHS accredited services on a pay as you go basis..
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.
Identify your Health Risks
Peritus Health Management’s Occupational Hygienists or Specialist Occupational Health Nurse Practitioners will support you in completing a health risk matrix which will identify your health risks and the groups of employees that are exposed. This will target your health surveillance programme appropriately, minimise health risks and avoid unnecessary costs.
The objectives of health surveillance are to:
- Check the health of individual employees by detecting, as early as possible, adverse changes which may be caused by exposure to substances hazardous to health;
- Collect, keep and use data and information for determining and evaluating hazards to health so that action can be taken to prevent more serious disease from developing;
- Check control measures are working effectively by providing feedback on the accuracy of the risk assessment and the effectiveness of control measures to identify where further steps to manage risk are needed.
The quality of our services is assured by the Faculty of Occupational Medicine’s Safe Effective Quality Occupational Health Service (SEQOHS) accreditation scheme which demonstrates that we have the competence to deliver the occupational health services you need.
Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Approved Code of Practice 6th ed Guidance 11
