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WSLH Welcomes OSHA Consultation Program To Staff
MADISON, Wis. – The Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene adds 11 new faces to its staff this month with the transfer of the OSHA Consultation Program from the Department of Health and Family Services.
"This is an opportunity for two programs that already interact to work more closely together," said Terry Burk, the director of the Wisconsin Occupational Health Laboratory (WOHL) and assistant director of the WSLH's Environmental Health Division. "The OSHA Consultation team members are out in the field taking samples, meeting employers, improving safety and health at the workplace, while our laboratory handles their testing and the lab work for 41 other states.
"Now, we can look forward to our chemists going out in the field to better understand what the OSHA staff does, to see the work environments and see how our little bit fits into the whole process.
"The OSHA staff can now also see what our chemists do as well," Burk added. "That it's not just taking a sample, popping it into a machine and the results come out, but seeing the whole process of taking a sample from the field into the laboratory and back out to help people in their workplace. Understanding what happens throughout the whole process is mutually beneficial."
Environmental Health Manager Terry Moen and her staff will retain their OSHA Consultation Program name and settle into a new home within the WSLH's Workplace and Ambient Air program at Ag Drive. Moen and six staff members will work in Madison, while two members of the team will work in Green Bay and two in Milwaukee.
Despite a change in address, the OSHA Consultation Program will continue to provide its free services to private sector employers by providing onsite consultation at the request of the owner or manager of a private company to assist them in providing their employees with a place of employment which is safe and healthful.
The Consultation team collects air samples during their onsite workplace visits to test for particulates like metals, crystalline silica and pesticides, in addition to vapors, such as solvents like benzene, and acids. The WSLH chemists then test the samples of Wisconsin 's Consultation Program and those of similar programs in 41 other states that are spread out among various state departments (health, labor, unemployment) and universities.
Here in Wisconsin , the addition of the OSHA Consultation Program to the University of Wisconsin-Madison will benefit more than the WSLH though.
"This is also the beginning of a possible occupational health focus for the UW-Madison," Burk said. "These two programs coming together can work with the UW's School for Workers, Safety Departments and students in Industrial Engineering. It could help improve occupational health education on campus. Currently, industrial hygiene is not a major, but we can open more doors and maybe in 10 or 15 years, we might have that."
The 11 new WSLH staff members of the OSHA Consultation Program are:
Written By: Jessica D. Burda, WSLH Communications Specialist Date: October 5, 2004 Related Stories: |
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