OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH TEAM

Because of the diversity of the hazards encountered by animal workers, providing effective occupational health services to such workers is best accomplished through a team approach. Such a team can include a medical provider to provide screening and management of medical problems, a veterinarian who is familiar with zoonotic disease risks, industrial hygienists to identify and evaluate hazardous exposures and help devise engineering and work practice controls to reduce them, and biosafety/infection control specialists to focus on zoonotic disease transmission risks. Figure 12-1 diagrams the ideal components of an occupational health team that provides preventive health care to animal workers.

Actively involving a designated human health care provider in an occupational health approach for animal workers also has many advantages. Such involvement can lead to the medical provider becoming more knowledgeable about the specific health risks faced by animal workers. Ongoing communication between the medical provider and the veterinarian helps ensure that injured workers are properly managed, workers at increased risk of illness (e.g., immunocompromised persons) and injury are adequately counseled, and preventable hazards in the workplace are identified and addressed.

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Veterinarians can play key roles in an occupational health team. The veterinarian is the source of knowledge about relevant animal diseases and the necessary procedures of animal handling and typically has regular contact with the animals, the workplace, and the animal workers. In animal research facilities, the veterinarian is often the administrative supervisor of the animal care workers. In veterinary hospitals the veterinarian may be both the chief clinician and the practice director. For wildlife rehabilitation facilities, animal shelters, zoos, and many other settings, the consulting veterinarian may be the principal point of contact with the medical providers as well as the chief source of medical information about occupational health and safety hazards of the workplace. The veterinarian may be the health professional who is most familiar to the workers and with whom the workers have established a trusting relationship. The veterinarian may also be in regular contact with the employer or worksite supervisor and be able to advocate for the provision of occupational health services for the workers. For all these reasons the veterinarian may be the most appropriate professional to assemble and help lead the occupational health team as well as ensure that the services provided to workers are appropriate for the work setting.

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Industrial hygienists have training in the identification and engineering control of a wide range of workplace hazards, including chemical, physical, and biological agents. Consultation from such individuals can help an occupational health team design safe strategies for the handling of hazardous chemicals such as cleaning agents and anesthetic gases, control of noise, and methods to reduce dust exposures that can cause allergy and infection.

Infection control and biosafety specialists are professionals who specialize in the prevention of infectious disease transmissions in workplaces and other settings. They can play a consulting role in the occupational health team by identifying specific infectious disease hazards and helping design strategies to reduce both animal-animal and animal-human transmission of disease. This may involve the design of ventilation systems and work policies such as disposal of infectious waste and use of personal protective equipment.

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Category: WHO