Improving the prevention and control of hazardous substance exposures: a randomized controlled trial in manufacturing worksites.

Background: New measures of exposure prevention (EP) activity were used to evaluate the effectiveness of a 16-month management-focused intervention addressing hazardous substance exposures in manufacturing work settings.

Methods: EP efforts were assessed using a rating scheme developed for this study. The rating scheme yields a set of measures of exposure potential and protection, which are combined into an overall EP summary rating.

An exposure prevention rating method for intervention needs assessment and effectiveness evaluation.

This article describes a new method for (1) systematically prioritizing needs for intervention on hazardous substance exposures in manufacturing work sites, and (2) evaluating intervention effectiveness. We developed a checklist containing six unique sets of yes/no variables organized in a 2 x 3 matrix of exposure potential versus protection (two columns) at the levels of materials, processes, and human interface (three rows). The three levels correspond to a simplified hierarchy of controls.