Pingle S, Shanbhag S
Reliance Industries Ltd, Patalganga, India.
Med Lav. 2006 Mar-Apr;97(2):358-67.
Occupational health department of a large private enterprise located in India launched Project CASH--Change Agents for Safety and Health, at manufacturing units of the enterprise to bring about a positive change in work environment and improvement in work practices to reduce occupational health risk. Multidisciplinary teams of change agents were constituted and were given intensive training inputs. Reduction in exposure to noise, dust and heat stress were identified as specific objectives after a baseline survey of the work environment. Occupational safety and health knowledge and training was imparted to all field personnel to improve their work practices and attitudes. The focus of the actions was on engineering control measures and process engineering changes necessary for workplace improvement. Noise levels were reduced by an average of more than 9dBA in most of the top ten high noise locations. Out of two locations identified for dust exposure, one was fully eliminated and dust levels at other location were significantly reduced. Heat stress was reduced in all three identified locations with an average reduction of more than 3 degrees C in WBGT levels. Thus, final evaluation of workplace environments revealed significant reduction in exposure to all identified agents, viz noise, dust and heat fulfilling the project objectives. Educating and empowering the team led to reduction of occupational health risks in the work environment. There was positive attitudinal and behavioural change in safety and occupational health awareness & practices among employees. The monetary savings resulting from improvements far outweighed the investments. Success of this pilot project was followed up with further similar projects and their number has grown in geometric proportion for the last three years indicating the sustainability of the project.
位于印度的一家大型私营企业的职业健康部门在该企业的生产单位启动了“CASH项目——安全与健康变革推动者”，以在工作环境中带来积极变化，并改进工作实践，从而降低职业健康风险。组建了多学科的变革推动者团队，并给予他们密集的培训投入。在对工作环境进行基线调查后，将减少噪声、粉尘和热应激暴露确定为具体目标。向所有现场人员传授职业安全与健康知识和培训，以改善他们的工作实践和态度。行动的重点是工程控制措施以及工作场所改善所需的工艺工程变更。在十大高噪声场所中的大多数，噪声水平平均降低了9分贝以上。在确定的两个粉尘暴露场所中，一个已完全消除，另一个场所的粉尘水平显著降低。在所有确定的三个场所中，热应激均有所降低，湿球黑球温度水平平均降低了3摄氏度以上。因此，对工作场所环境的最终评估显示，所有确定的因素，即噪声、粉尘和热的暴露均显著降低，实现了项目目标。对团队进行教育并赋予其权力，从而降低了工作环境中的职业健康风险。员工在安全和职业健康意识及实践方面出现了积极的态度和行为变化。改进所带来的货币节省远远超过了投资。该试点项目取得成功后，又开展了更多类似项目，在过去三年中，此类项目的数量呈几何级数增长，表明该项目具有可持续性。
