The COVID pandemic has not only resulted in organisations across Australia altering their operational practices to meet new safety compliance obligations, it has also seen business’ develop clearer processes for informing the public of their compliant practices. For example, many companies will now visibly display signs informing visitors that they must wear a mask whilst onsite, instructing them to use the QR code check-in, and alerting them to any other responsibilities they have whilst onsite, to ensure the premises remains safe. These clear strategies work at demonstrating to the public that the business has identified potential occupational hygiene risks, and taken active steps to mitigate them, thus ensuring their worksites always remain safe spaces for everyone. This article will discuss what companies can be doing to meet their occupational hygiene obligations, thus demonstrating to the wider business community that they have a commitment to safety.
Occupational hygiene is a scientific approach to occ. health and safety
Business’ can successfully address the above issues by ensuring their occupational hygiene practices meet their compliance obligations. Occupational hygiene utilises science and technology to measure the extent of staff exposure to all potentially hazardous onsite environmental risks, to assess whether the risks are within compliant levels. If not, business’ work at creating control measures to both bring the risks to compliant levels, and ensure they stay there.
Although the pandemic has seen a heightened focus concerning certain worksite health and safety risks, such as proper social distancing practices and wearing masks to minimise exposure risks, occupational hygiene addresses the full extent of onsite environmental risks, including dust exposure, poor air quality, overheating, safe chemical handling, noise exposure risks, poor ergonomic layouts, and so on.
All business’ have an obligation to ensure that the full extent of occ. hygiene risks have been identified at their worksites, and that appropriate control measures have been implemented to ensure they remain within compliant levels. An effective way to address this issue is by contracting a certified occupational hygienist to visit your worksite and conduct a thorough occupational hygiene audit of the premises.
An occupational hygienist is a skilled professional trained at identifying the full extent of onsite occupational hygiene risks, by using scientific processes to measure whether they are within compliance levels, and helping business’ develop effective control measures for ensuring the risks achieve and maintain compliant levels.
By undergoing an occupational hygiene audit, business’ will be able to:
- Identify the full extent on onsite occupational hygiene risks: The risks your business will be exposed to depend upon several factors, including its industry, location, the particulars of the worksite, and so on. By not having a certified occupational hygienist conduct a comprehensive occ. hygiene audit of the premises, business’ risk overlooking certain risks. If these risks end up affecting staff or customers then the business could face fines, have its operations severely impacted, and see its overall reputation diminished.
- Fully evaluate all onsite risks to determine if they are meeting compliance obligations: A certified occupational hygienist will have the business’ compliance obligations in mind when conducting the audit, and constantly check to see if all risks are meeting the business’ compliance obligations. By undergoing this process, companies will be able to assure their staff and customers that they are working towards meeting their obligations, and taking active steps to mitigate the harm that potential risks pose.
- Develop control measures for ensuring risks remain within compliant levels: Occupational hygienists will work with their clients to develop a straight-forward action plan for controlling occupational hygiene risks. By developing control measures such as clear documentation processes, routine audits, staff briefings on their role and responsibilities, and so on, companies are showing a commitment to safe, compliant work practices, and upholding their reputation as a safe business to work with.
By contracting a certified occupational hygienist, business’ are ensuring that they develop a clear, comprehensive approach to effective occ. hygiene practices, and that no risk is overlooked. Further, a certified occupational hygienist can help business’ develop a routine auditing plan through periodic onsite inspections of their worksites, thus significantly minimising the chances of an occ. hygiene risk going undetected, and onsite visitors being placed at risk.
Our certified occupational hygienists are here to help
Reading this article may have made you curious about occupational hygiene overall, and you may be wanting to learn more about the specific processes, and how they can be tailored to your operations. Please contact our specialist consultants today by email at sales@anitechgroup.com or by phone on 1300 802 163 for a brief, obligation-free consultation about some of the occupational hygiene risks your operations may be exposed to, how an occupational hygiene audit can work at protecting your business, and how to get started on this process.
By providing our specialist consultants with information about your operations, including its industry, work type, size, the number of staff typically onsite, and so on, they can clearly explain how an occupational hygiene audit can benefit your organisation, thus ensuring it demonstrates an ongoing commitment to safety, meets its compliance obligations, and upholds its reputation as a safe company to work with. Doesn’t this solution sound like something worth hearing more about?
Recent Comments