Occupational safety and health: United by best practices (and lots of acronyms).

• Author: Jacobi, Jonathan A.
• Position: HEALTH & MEDICINE

An affinity for acronyms may not be a prerequisite for a career as a safety and health professional--but it helps. Our day-to-day responsibilities require us to know dozens of abbreviations. And though we share the same fundamental mission ...

Occupational safety and health (OSH) is one of the most widely accepted terms in the vocabulary of occupational safety and health professionals--which makes sense as it echoes the federal act that brought the industry to greater prominence. Some organizations flip the order to OHS. Others add environment to the mix: EHS, HSE, SHE.

Integrating security into the mix yields a few more variations, like HSS and HSSE. And, as leading-edge companies continue exploring the synergy between quality management and workforce safety and health, were also seeing greater use of acronyms like EHSQ.

Still, I'd argue that "occupational safety and health" best describes the heart of these programs. It also is appropriate because those two functions are so closely intertwined--or should be. Although they are separate "silos" in many organizations, today's most successful programs achieve greater efficiency and effectiveness by uniting safety and health management enterprise-wide. Consider the following areas where safety and health professionals can, and should, work together:

Hearing Conservation

All good programs involve health professionals conducting audiograms to monitor the hearing of individuals working in noisy areas. Safety personnel typically provide training, hearing protection and other controls as part of the effort.

What's a noisy area? That's best answered by safety and industrial hygiene personnel using noise sampling equipment. If it is determined that an employee has experienced a substantial loss in hearing, health and safety professionals work together to document the occurrence, investigate likely causes and, if appropriate, take corrective action.

Chemical and Biological Exposure Control

Reducing or eliminating exposure to hazardous substances is very much a team effort between health and safety professionals. While healthcare personnel are responsible for monitoring and preventing the harmful effects of exposure (e.g., through immunizations, etc.), safety and industrial hygiene personnel typically are the best source of information about the specific substances involved and which employees and job categories are most likely to experience exposure risks. Safety professionals also are likely to be...