• Hearing Conservation
• Medical Surveillance
• HazMat Surveillance
• Wellness
• Safety work site evaluation

Surveillance physicals are only a small part of a comprehensive surveillance program, but are the most important way to detect unsuspected exposures or early health risks. The results of the exams should be reported to the worker and records available to the personal physician. If the exams are not performed on-site then some mechanism to have the results reviewed by CHC’s Medical Director should be in place.

The extent of worker and work place surveillance will vary with the environmental and physical risks to the worker. There may be confusion regarding the nomenclature used in a surveillance program. This can best be avoided by written guidelines and procedures that define terms. A generally accepted set of definitions for monitoring programs is as follows:

Clinical Monitoring is a standard complete physical including review of the employee's health history and a hands-on examination.

Medical Monitoring is sometimes called health effects monitoring and includes standard blood chemistries for hepatic, renal, metabolic and other organ function, as well as electrocardiographic and pulmonary function testing. The test results are compared to population norms and to baseline results established on the individual worker.

Biologic Monitoring is sometimes called biochemical effects monitoring. It refers to the evaluation of specific environmental exposures through measurements of the agents (e.g. lead, cadmium, cholinesterase, etc.) or their metabolites in biological samples. The results are compared to reference values known as biological exposure indices (BEIs).

Environmental Monitoring is the estimation of exposure by sampling of the workplace environment for known or suspected hazardous agents. The results are compared with the published threshold limit values or TLV (ACGIH), or the permissible exposure level or PEL (OSHA).

Please e-mail Dr. Carol Currier (ccurrier@LMGdoctors.com) for more information concerning any of these programs.