New NIOSH Document Chronicles PtD Initiatives
The report shows how Prevention through Design, which is linked to the National Occupational Research Agenda, is being broadly disseminated.
"Prevention through Design: Plan for the National Initiative" is a report posted recently by NIOSH that lists the various PtD goals and plans and shows how ambitious this program is.
From incorporating PtD into certification exams for safety professionals, industrial hygienists, and environmental professionals, to possibly developing the PtD equivalent of the Energy Star designation, to working with Mercer-owned ORC Worldwide to assess the usefulness of PtD to Fortune 500 companies and then publishing the information in leading business journals such as Forbes and Harvard Business Review, to using PtD principles in guidelines for safe handling of engineered nanoparticles, the program seeks acceptance and use of PtD concepts throughout U.S. industry.
The agency's online page linking to the report explains it this way: "[S]takeholders across all industrial sectors of the economy need a comprehensive approach for addressing worker health and safety issues by eliminating hazards and minimizing risks to workers throughout the life cycle of work premises, tools, equipment, machinery, substances, and work processes, including their construction, manufacture, use, maintenance, and ultimate disposal or re-use."
The report also shows how thoroughly the PtD approach is woven into the National Occupational Research Agenda.