Occupational Hygiene in the Netherlands

1
Occupational Hygiene in the Netherlands

• Working on a new future
• Huib Arts, Chairman NVvA

2
Introduction

• Occupational hygiene
• Recognize, evaluate and control physical,
  chemical en biological factors.
• Occupational hygiene in Holland
• 1978 official recognition by the occupational
  physicians (NVAB)
• From 1979 MSc program at the Agricultural
  University in Wageningen
• Later BSc programs besides MSc programs

3
Dutch occupational Hygiene society (NVvA)

• Founded in 1983 30 members
• 2005 circa 600 members
• Employers
• 70 occupational safety and health service
• 10 consultancy
• 10 research and education
• 10 others

4
Legal framework (1994)

• Working environment act 1994
• Every company (15) must engage services of
  certified OSH (occupational safety and heath)
  service
• Every certified OSH service must employ
• Occupatonal physician
• Safety engineer
• Organisational expert and
• Occupational hygienist

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Effects of working environment act 1994 (1)

• For companies / every employer
• lt 1994 every company pays the same amount for
  sick-leave for every employee
• 1994 sick-leave is directly paid by the
  employer.
• gt Every employer has a financial stimulus to
  reduce sick-leave.

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Effects of working environment act 1994 (2)

• For OHS services
• A new market (sick-leave)
• (An offer- regulated market )
• New tasks / employees especially
• Monitoring sickness for clients
• Identifying hazards in the working environment
• Employ a
• Safety engineer
• Organisational expert and
• Occupational hygienist

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Effects of working environment act 1994 (3)

• A new occupation
• Organisational expert
• Stimulus for the employment for the four groups
  of obligatory employees of an OHS service.
• A shift in the mind set of employers and the
  government about sick-leave

8
Occupational hygienist (1994-2004)

• Main task
• Hazard identification and risk evaluation
• Too much relatively simple work to be done
• Expert skills are unknown
• Wrong image an inspector for the government

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Competenties for the old OH

• The every day skills
• Analyze a problem
• Finding relevant knowledge ( e.g. by having an
  information network)
• The wish of every OSH service
• Generate new work Be a salesman
• Be a consultant (not an inspector)

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Act on OSH services 2005

• For companies
• No obligation to have a contract with an OSH-
  service
• For OSH services
• Get rid of a very bad image
• Convince a client we are the best
• Sell consultants that are not well known.

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Consequences for the prevention professionals

• Diminishing of employment
• Getting known on a demand-regulated market
• Getting rid of a negative image
• (if an image is present)
• Being a consultant in stead of an inspector

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A new future?

• Is our country big enough for the three of us?
• Do we need a shoot out?
• What will we see when the clouds of dust have
  vanished?
• gt We have to work together on a new future!

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The differences

• We have more in common than what divides us
• Maybe we have specialized too far we are all
  prevention specialists
• Even each of the three occupations has its own
  specialists e.g. on a subject or line of
  business noise / transport

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Strategy Of Societies

• We define a new occupation the prevention
  manager. The prevention manager is a generalist
• work with basics of the three disciplines.
• give an answer on 80 of all the questions
• We need specialized problem solvers

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The prevention manager
Employer and employee

Prevention manager
Medical manager
SE
OE
OH
Gate watcher
Social Medical consultant
Occup. epidemi- ologist
etc.
Physio- therapist
etc.
Ergo- nomic advisor
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Prevention manager - education

Generalist
Specialist
Occupational Physician
PM
OH
SE
OE
Physician
Optional? Parts of occupational physician
Basics
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Our specialists

• A problem with which a client comes to us is
  often redefined or given numbers.
• We need to sell solutions, not redefined
  problems!!
• A specialist has to be able to define a solution
  and coach an implementation course.

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Your choice Being a generalist or specialist

• Every occupational hygienist, safety engineer and
  organisational expert has to make a choice
• Becoming a generalist or a specialist
• If you stay what you are, you will stay where you
  are (when you awake).

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Competencies the generalist (1)

• The client wants a team with a perfect defense
  and a daring offense.
• The goal of the prevention manager is to be the
  counterpart on prevention questions for the
  occupational physician
• There must be enough common ground in order to
  be a perfect match

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Competencies the generalist (2)

• Be able to
• Analyze problems
• Broaden your field of vision (network)
• Influence
• Be
• Persuasive
• Pro active
• A manager (of problems)

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Competencies the specialist (1)

• The client wants a problem solved, not redefined.
  
• The most recent and relevant knowledge must be
  available
• He is a researcher in the field.

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Competencies the specialist (2)

• Be able to
• Analyze problems
• See different solutions
• Compare differences
• Be
• Inquisitive
• A walking encyclopedia
• A bridge between science and practice

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Conclusions

• Synchronize the course for occupational physician
  and the prevention manager.
• Interaction between the specialists and the
  occupational physician is limited.
• Without interaction we stand alone in a complex
  network.