230066 Use of Control Banding in Relation to Chemical Policy Reform

Tuesday, November 9, 2010 : 10:30 AM - 10:50 AM

Tim Morse, PhD, CPE , ErgoCenter and Occupational and Environmental Health Center, UConn Health Center, Farmington, CT
Anne L. Bracker, MPH , Department of Medicine, Division of Occupational & Environmental Medicine, University of Connecticut School of Medicine, Farmington, CT
Nancy Simcox, MPH, CIH , Occupational and Environmental Health Center, UConn Health Center, Farmington, CT
Control banding (CB) is a control-focused risk management model that has received international attention. CB strategies are designed to control workplace chemical exposures after the completion of a qualitative risk assessment. A training program in Connecticut across 34 workplaces demonstrated that the model can be taught to both occupational health professionals and health and safety committees, and used successfully for both designing proper controls and identifying safer alternatives in relation to occupational exposures. While traditional control banding was designed primarily for controlling occupational exposures, its use of internationally-based and standardized “Risk-phrases” which include environmental impact (such as the Persistent, Bio-accumulative, and Toxic category) and graphic use of risk categories make it potentially very useful for safer alternative chemical assessments which may be extended across the life cycle of chemicals from origin to ultimate environmental fate.

Learning Areas:
Environmental health sciences
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Occupational health and safety
Public health or related public policy

Learning Objectives:
Define control banding as a qualitative chemical evaluation tool. Explain the uses of control banding in relation to chemical policy reform.

Keywords: Occupational Exposure, Environmental Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: Professor in occupational health; Ph.D. in Social Science and Health; co-director of an educational grant on control banding
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.