Health, safety integrated in proactive program
Goal is to prevent, minimize employee injuries
Keeping employees safe and healthy is challenging enough when they work in an office environment. But what if they were exposed to uranium, beryllium, or potential carcinogens?
That’s the challenge faced by Lockheed Martin Energy Systems of Oak Ridge, TN, which manages energy-related facilities for the U.S. Department of Energy (D.O.E.).
Lockheed meets this challenge with a proactive health and safety program that is closely integrated with the Health Services (medical) department.
"In terms of hazard identification, we want to be involved upfront and early in the process not once an employee is injured," explains Mark McKinney, group leader for Nuclear Operations Safety & Health Support.
Recently, the company’s Industrial Hygiene and Industrial Safety departments were placed under the same manager, to engender even more "seamless" integration. It was this integration that was cited by the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine when it recently gave Lockheed Martin its Corporate Health Achievement award.
A unique work environment
Lockheed Martin manages three D.O.E. facilities in the area, with a total of about 13,000 employees a manufacturing plant, an environmental restoration facility, and a research lab.
The manufacturing plant, which still carries its original "Manhattan Project" name, Y-12, presents the greatest challenge.
"We don’t have reactors, but we have tons of enriched uranium, which is radioactive, explains Otis W. Jones, MD, medical director at Y-12. "We smelt it, machine it, and polish it. You can have problems with dust and fumes." The radiation control, or "RadCon" department, defines which areas are radioactive or contaminated, which people require film badges, and which employees require uranium urine analysis, says Jones.
"The industrial hygiene department covers everything else mercury, lead, asbestos, beryllium, and other hazardous materials," he notes.
One of the keys to the company’s health and safety program, says McKinney, is that responsibility is brought right onto the plant floor.
"It is the front-level supervisor, or the manager of a particular operating area, who is ultimately responsible for the well-being of the employees not the health & safety organization," he explains. "We develop programs for occupational safety and health; then, they develop area-specific packages based on those requirements."
Regular self-assessments of each area, conducted by the line managers, their workers, and health & safety representatives help identify potential hazards and ensure that appropriate action is taken, says McKinney.
There are formal Abatement Plans for different types of hazards, adds McKinney. All items that need to be corrected are risk-ranked by severity, injury, and illness and are then computerized.
Every worker receives general training in terms of potential hazards and emergency procedures. "Then, depending on their job, they may get additional training," says McKinney. Each facility has a regular safety and pre-job meeting, he notes. (The company also has a comprehensive disaster preparedness plan. See story, p. 89.)
Interfacing with medical department
Frequent communication throughout the company is another key part of Lockheed’s workplace safety plan. If the plant supervisor is notified of a problem first, the Health & Safety department is informed immediately. The Health & Safety and Health Services departments talk at least once a day to exchange documentation on the previous day’s activities or to inform each other of new activities as they develop. Once Health & Safety is informed of a worksite problem, Jones routes the case to the appropriate specialist depending on the nature of the problem.
All Lockheed Martin employees get regular physicals. Many of these are customized according to the type of work they do, taking into account such things as exposure to extreme temperatures or asbestos. Here again, the Health Services and Safety & Health communicate closely.
"We do a comprehensive exam on everyone that is not risk-specific," Jones adds. "On people who work with beryllium or asbestos, we also do pulmonary function tests every year. For beryllium workers, we also do chest X-rays. For lead workers, we do blood lead analysis and so forth."
This well-integrated system will be even further enhanced with the new departmental structure, McKinney predicts. "Over a period of time, what we hope will happen is that industrial hygienists will become better trained and disciplined by working with safety professionals and vice versa," he says. "It also provides an opportunity for even better interfacing between health and safety."
[Editor’s Note: For more information, contact: Mark McKinney, Lockheed Martin, P.O. Box 2009, Oak Ridge, TN 37831 (423) 576-5454. Fax: (423) 576-3831.]
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