Presented by: Derek Miller, Royal NZ Air Force and NZ Occupational Hygiene Society at OHSIG 2014, Thursday 11/9/14, NZI Room 4, 10.45am

1. Assessment of various Control band systems for
suitability and application in New Zealand
Sgt Derek Miller LFOH MNZOHS (RNZAF)
OHSIG 2014 10-12 Sep 2014

2. Disclaimer
• This presentation represents the views
and opinions of the author and not that of
the Royal New Zealand Air Force, New
Zealand Defence Force, or any other
Government organisation

3. Acknowledgments
• Philippa Gibson, CIH, COH, MNZOHS –
WorkSafe NZ
• New Zealand Defence Force
• Royal New Zealand Air Force

4. What is Control Banding?
• Control banding (CB) is a risk management model used
to assess and manage exposure to occupational health
hazards
• Primarily intended for use by SME’s that lack
professional occupational hygiene or other relevant
expertise to assess and manage exposure risk
• The intention is to provide a level of worker protection
consistent with the level of protection that would be
identified by skilled occupational hygiene professionals
using more robust scientific based techniques

5. Why Look at Control Banding Systems
• Occupational disease has significantly worse human and
financial impacts than acute-harm incidents. (Taskforce
report 2013)
• Small medium enterprises particularly struggle with
managing chemical exposure
• Can be used as an audit tool to assess whether current
controls are adequate
• Tools used widely in Europe, some Asian countries, US,
Australia. However, they are not well known or widely
used in NZ

6. +
Exposure
Potential
The substance is allocated
to a ‘dustiness or volatility
band’ and a
‘scale of use’ band based on
amount used and
frequency of exposure
Health hazard
The substance is allocated to
a ‘hazard band’ using risk
phrases (R-phrases).
R-phrases are internationally
standardised chemical risk
phrases you find on SDS. For
example, R42 = may cause
sensitisation by inhalation
Control
Approach
Recommends the type
of approach needed to
achieve adequate
control
=
Health hazard Exposure potential Control approach
Risk assessment
Risk management

7. Assessments of Control Banding Systems
• Initial Assessment by Occupational Hygienists
– COSHH Essentials (UK)
– Stoffenmanager (Dutch)
– Ecetoc (EU)
– Advance Reach Tool (ART) (EU)
– EMKG-EXPO-Tool (German)
– ILO toolkit (UN)

8. Project Aims
• Assess various web available tools for
managing chemical exposure
• Assess training needs in the use of tools
• Assess impact of selected tools on the
workplace
• Compare results from tools v Occupational
Hygiene traditional methods

9. Process Applied
• Selection of CB for trial
• Training in the use of selected models
• Workplace assessments by end users
• Workplace assessments by Occupational
Hygienists
• Analysis of results

10. Trial Results
• COSHH Essentials was the preferred CB
system
• Occupational Hygienists and participants
assessments matched
• Some participants had a rethink about
their approach to using haz subs in future
• New controls put in place where they had
not been considered needed before
• Showed up weaknesses in some SDS’s

11. Conclusion
• There is value in adopting a simple CB tool for
New Zealand
• Training packages and tools need to be
developed to support any CB system adopted
• New Zealand should not try and create its
own version

12. Finally
• Control banding systems are useful tools when
used alongside other methods
• Any CB system adopted will have their limits and
are not a panacea to the challenges of working
with hazardous substances. However, they are a
big step forward in aiding SME’s with improving
their chemical exposures and reducing the long
term occupational health burden

13. Questions?