OHSI 30th Annual Conference "The role of Occupational Hygiene in Risk Management"
Wednesday 27th and Thursday 28th April 2022
Conference Programme
08.30 Registration
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09.00 Conference Opening Dr Eoin Collins OHSI Hon. President and Dr. Sharon Guinness, HSA Chief Executive
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09.10 Annual Tom O' Connor Lecture: 'Estimating burden of disease: the contribution of occupation'
Dr. Lesley Rushton
Estimation of the burden of occupational disease due to different causes makes an important contribution to the identification of key risk factors and the development of risk reduction strategies together with formulation of health policy. This presentation will briefly outline the methods used and highlight methodological issues and data limitations.
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09.50 'Chemicals, Carcinogens and Construction – the changing landscape'
Michelle McDermott, HSA
Michelle will speak about the ongoing updates to the Carcinogens Directive, the updated Code of Practice for Chemical Agents, and increasing focus on Health, especially in Construction. The presentation will link with the Dangerous Substances Campaign and Roadmap on Carcinogens and provide information on resources available
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10.35 Tea/Coffee Break
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11.00 'Statistics for Occupational Hygienists – Testing Compliance with Exposure Limits'
Kelvin Williams
This is a presentation on the use of statistics to help you make defensible decisions about compliance or noncompliance with exposure limits. It introduces the strategy jointly developed by the British and Dutch occupational hygiene societies and adopted in NEN-EN 689 "Workplace exposure - Measurement of exposure by inhalation to chemical agents - Strategy for testing compliance with occupational exposure limit values" (May 2018).
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11.40 'Occupational Hygiene Challenges and Opportunities – Playing Strategically'
Dr. Bob Rajan
Bob will explore three themes and propose a limited number of strategic approaches for preventing work-related ill-health. The themes explored, include reporting key risk management information; Promoting positive culture, attitudes and behaviours for better exposure control outcomes and maximising new developments in OH practices.
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12.20 Exhibitor Presentations
Meet the exhibitors.
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13.00 LUNCH & EXHIBITS
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14.15 OHSI AGM
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14.30 'Human Biomonitoring sampling methods for evaluating occupational exposures'
Alison Connolly
Human Biomonitoring is an exposure assessment technique used to assess a person's specific exposure to a hazard in both an environmental and occupational setting, by measuring substances in body fluids such as blood, urine, and breast milk. Case studies using human biomonitoring to assess exposures in the workforce will be presented.
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15.10 Legislative updates on REACH and CLP.
Caroline Walsh, HSA
Including how the information from REACH registrations can improve chemical safety at work, hot topics including the potential impact of Brexit on the chemical supply chain, an overview of amendments to REACH and CLP, related guidance and helpdesk supports.
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15.50 'Management of Respirable Crystalline Silica (RCS) in Construction'
John Egan
To outline the approach taken by the construction sector for the management of RCS mindful of the respective OELV of 0.1mg/m3 (8 hour reference period), as set down in the 2018 Code of Practice for the Chemical Agents Regulations published by the Health & Safety Authority.
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16.30 Conference Close.
Anne Moore OHSI Hon. President
Speakers
DR. BOB RAJAN: Bob is passionate about exposure control design and has been involved in instrumentation design, development of models and codes for mistake-proof exposure control design.He is a Principal Inspector with HSE and involved in the development of strategies and policies associated with substances hazardous to health. At present he is concentrating on developing and applying leading indicators and the LOcHER project, which is helping to engage and empower young learners so that they can take measures to protect their health when entering the world of work. He is a Vice Chair of SGUK and past president of BOHS.
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DR. LESLEY RUSHTON: Lesley Rushton is an epidemiologist/statistician with extensive research experience into occupational and environmental causes of ill health, including studies of workers in several industries such as the oil industry, silica sand and printing industries, children's health and air pollution, estimation of burden of occupationally- related cancer in Britain, design and application of an occupational module for UK Biobank. She is member of the UK Committee on Carcinogenicity and the UK HSE Engineering and Environmental Assurance Committee and is Chair of the UK Industrial Injuries Advisory Council.
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MICHELLE MCDERMOTT: Michelle McDermott, MSc., LFOH, has worked as an inspector within the Occupational Hygiene Unit of the HSA since 2008. In addition to workplace inspections and investigations, she is a member of the REACH Substance Evaluation Team. Prior to her role in the HSA, she worked in health and safety roles in the manufacturing industry.
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CAROLINE WALSH: Caroline works in the Chemicals and Prevention Division where she manages the HSA's Chemicals Helpdesk and represents Ireland at the ECHA HelpNet Steering group. She leads on CLP policy and her work includes legislative updates to CLP, reviewing ECHA guidance and updating FAQs. She provides technical support to her compliance Colleagues, Government Departments and Agencies involved in the REACH and CLP processes at home and abroad.
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KELVIN WILLIAMS: Kelvin Williams is an independent occupational hygiene consultant with over 30 years of experience providing a wide range of occupational hygiene services to clients in the public and private sectors. Kelvin's experience includes roles as Head of Environmental Health and Safety at Stanger Consultants, Chief Occupational Hygienist at Wimtec Environmental and Operations Director for the Occupational Health and Environment Divisions at National Britannia Ltd.
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DR. ALISON CONNOLLY: Alison is an exposure scientist and a recent doctoral graduate, who is currently conducting postdoctoral research at NUI Galway. Alison's PhD research project involved investigating occupational pesticide exposures among amenity horticulturists. Alison has a keen interest in exposure science and occupational hygiene and is a member of the British Occupational Hygiene Society (BOHS), a committee member of the Occupational Hygiene Society of Ireland (OHSI) and a member of the International Society of Exposure Science (ISES).
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JOHN EGAN: John is an Executive for Safety and Training with the Construction Industry Federation (CIF). One of John's key objectives is to develop health and safety initiatives for the construction sector. This includes participation on working groups for the CIF and for the Construction Safety Partnership Advisory Committee (CSPAC). John partakes in social dialogue meetings on dust management with the European Construction Industry Federation (FIEC) and the European Federation of Building and Woodworkers (EFBWW).
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