OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH
Mission: The mission of an occupational health and safety program is to foster the prevention of occupationally acquired illnesses and injuries, the early recognition of health alterations due to occupational exposures, and the treatment and management of occupationally acquired illnesses and injuries.
The occupational health-care service works within the occupational health and safety program to ensure that risks associated with the use of research animals are kept to an acceptable minimum. The following factors should be considered in performing an adequate risk assessment:
- Animal contact
- Exposure intensity
- Exposure frequency
- Physical and biological hazards presented by the animal
- Hazardous properties of the agents used in the research protocols
- Susceptibility of the employee
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Occupational health history of employee doings similar work