Full-service assistance is for companies that want help in meeting OSHA's requirements for the entire facility. The Georgia Tech consultation program will: 1) identify physical hazards throughout the facility; 2) evaluate all technical programs; and 3) review the safety and health program management. Recommendations will be made on how to correct physical hazards and improve both the technical programs and the safety and health management system.

For all types of assistance, the Georgia Tech consultant must use the same identification and classification procedures as an OSHA compliance officer would. The employer must agree beforehand to correct all hazards identified by the consultant and provide written verification of the actions taken to correct serious hazards within a reasonable time frame, usually four to six weeks.

Menu of Services

For participants in this program, Georgia Tech typically provides the following services:

• Walk-Through Surveys to assist businesses in achieving "in-compliance" status with federal regulations and standards.
• Surveys of Work Practices to pinpoint causes of injuries or illness.
• Noise Measurements to evaluate noise exposure and assist with hearing conservation programs.
• Air Sampling and Analysis to measure contaminants such as dusts, fumes, gases, and vapors.
• Evaluations of Technical Programs such as Lockout/Tagout, Confined Space Entry, Hazard Communication, Respiratory Protection, and others.
• Safety and Health Management Systems development assistance.

Benefits to Georgia

In a typical year Georgia Tech's Safety and Health Consultation Program provides the following benefits to the employers and workers in the state of Georgia:

• Provides assistance to 364 small businesses
• Identifies 2,484 conditions which could cause serious physical harm
• Protects over 50,000 workers exposed to these conditions
• Saves companies over $2.5 million in potential fines - a payback of 2.5 times the funding level
• Trains over 1,400 private sector employers and workers.

Types of Surveys Performed

Savings to Industry

Five-Year Strategic Plan Underway

The Georgia Tech Safety and Health Consultation Program has developed a five-year strategic plan to help the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) achieve its goals for reducing injuries and illnesses by 15 percent in five industries and reducing three of the most significant types of workplace injuries and illnesses by the same percentage across several industries.

The industries we will be focusing on are construction, food processing, nursing homes, and logging. The three injury and illness categories we will emphasize are silica, amputations, and lead. Here are some capsule descriptions of the assistance to be provided in target industry groups:

• Construction: We will help industry to prevent injuries due to falls, electrocutions, struck-by and against heavy equipment as well as reducing exposure to silica and lead. Contact silica exposure specialist Art Wickman, CIH, and construction safety specialist Thomas Dean, CSP if you have any questions.

• Food Processing: The food processing industry must protect against a variety of safety and health threats, ranging from machine hazards and amputations to ergonomics and cumulative trauma disorders. Since most companies in the state of Georgia operate outside the small business requirements of the OSHA consultation program, we refer you to Georgia Tech's Agriculture Technology and Research Program that does provide technical assistance to medium and large corporations on request. If you are a small processor please contact Dan Ortiz.

• Nursing Homes: Nursing homes are faced with a number of issues from bloodborne pathogens to back injuries. Resident handling is closely associated with back injuries in this workplace. Ergonomist Bryan Black is the contact person.

• Logging: We are offering service to the logging industry. For information, contact Dan Ortiz.

• Silicosis Prevention: This illness is a disabling, nonreversible, and sometimes fatal lung disease caused by overexposure to respirable crystalline silica. More than one million U.S. workers are exposed to crystalline silica, and each year more than 250 workers die from silicosis. Contact Art Wickman, CIH, for information or technical assistance.