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Spécial “ Noise at work 2007 ”
13
Acoustique
&
Techniques n° 49
Participative strategy of risk management applied to the problems of noise at work
The workers must be the main actor of risk
prevention and wellbeing at work
Insofar as the goal of an OHS intervention in the work
environment is the maintenance or the improvement of the
wellbeing of the employees, no relevant action can be taken
without the knowledge of the work situation that only the
employees hold. The employees must thus be the main actors
- and not only the objects – of prevention and must be regarded
as such by all the OHS practitioners or others.
All the problems are related
The employee ‘lives’ his work situation as a whole and not as
a set of distinct and independent facts: he is ‘being well’ or
not, he likes is job overall or not… In addition, all aspects of
the work situation are interrelated. This is particularly true in
the field of musculoskeletal disorders as most epidemiological
studies demonstrated that they do not have a single cause
but are linked to almost all aspects of the work situation [10].
A comprehensive approach is therefore required.
The small and medium-sized enterprises (SME)
In the western countries, less than 40% of the employees work
in companies employing more than 250 people. Usually, in
these large companies, a well trained OHS practitioner
is present, competences are available, consultation bodies
function rather well, problems are dealt with and the frequency
and severity rates of accidents and occupational diseases are
lower. The majority of the employees work in SME where the
situation is much more variable. The methods must therefore
be addressed in priority at these SME, by taking account of the
limited means and competences that are there available.
The SOBANE strategy
The philosophy of the strategy is not specific to the problems
of noise [11]. Strategies with similar objectives were
developed and validated in the fields of heat stress [12, 13],
hand arm vibration [14] musculoskeletal disorders [15],
and other fields (safety, fire and explosion, work on
VDUs, chemical and biological agents…: see the web site
www.sobane.be).
It includes 4 stages whose characteristics are summarized
in table 1.
At stage 1, Screening,
all the aspects of the work situation
are quickly reviewed and obvious solutions are implemented
immediately. This stage is performed by the persons who
are directly concerned and who know the working conditions
of yesterday, today and tomorrow, that is the workers and
their technical management. A guide is used, named Déparis
(Dépistage participatif des risques, participative screening of
the risks). This Déparis guide is short, simple to understand
and to use and attractive. It is not time consuming in order to
be used systematically as soon as a «problem» is suspected.
It is then decided whether some risk factors need to be
investigated more in detail in order to determine means to
avoid them and make the work situation as comfortable as
possible.
For these risk factors,
a stage 2, Observation
, is started
by the same people: a meeting is generally organized to
brainstorm on the problems and determine what can be
done in the short term. Still, the procedure is simple and
straightforward to review systematically more in depth, one
by one, the aspects of the work situation directly or indirectly
related to the noise exposure, trying to find for each of them
the optimum condition. At the end, all the information is put
together, reviewed as a whole and decisions are taken about
preventive actions.
If these persons are not able to define satisfactory solutions
or if, after implementation of the technical or organizational
solutions identified at this stage, the problem remains,
the assistance of an OHS practitioner (physician, nurse,
ergonomist, hygienist, engineer…) becomes indispensable
and a more detailed
stage 3, Analysis
, is performed on the
problematic aspects, again to better determine where the
problems are and how to avoid them.
When their qualifications or means are exceeded or when
this
Analysis
does not still make it possible to finalize the
solutions, the complementary assistance of an expert might
be required for
a stage 4, Expertise
, oriented towards a very
specific aspect of the working conditions, in order to single out
final control solutions. These experts should have extensive
qualifications and means not only to assess the specific risk,
but to bring about the most cost-effective solutions. Often,
however, their
Expertise
will be limited to this field. The
proposed solutions must therefore be integrated in the whole
context of the working conditions in order not to lead to other
problems of a different nature.
Stage 1, Screening
The Déparis guide is intended to be used collectively, by
the workers, their technical management and people from
Stage 1
SCREENING
Stage 2
OBSERVATION
Stage 3
ANALYSIS
Stage 4
EXPERTISE
When ?
All cases
If problem
Difficult cases
Complex cases
How ?
Simple observations
Qualitative observations Quantitative observations Specialised techniques
Cost ?
Very low
10 minutes
Low
2 hours
Average
2 days
High
2 weeks
By whom ?
Workers and people of the
company
Workers ans people of the
company
Workers ans people of the
company + Specialists
Workers and people
of the company +
Specialists + Experts
Expertise work ergonomics Very high
Low
High average
Average
High
Low
Very high
Table 1 : Characteristics of the 4 stages of the strategy