SEDL / STP / STP1051-EB / STP26073S

Biotechnology: Is There a Role for Medical Surveillance?

Liberman, DF
Environmental Medical Service, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA

Ducatman, AM
Environmental Medical Service, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA

Fink, R
Environmental Medical Service, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA

Pages: 10    Published: Jan 1990

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Abstract

Human medical surveillance is a limited protection that can be quite useful in the control of biohazards provided that it is specific. Primary workplace protection consists of engineering and education processes intended to eliminate or to limit adverse exposures adequately. Secondary protection consists of environmental sampling that seeks to ascertain whether primary protection is working. Such sampling is called industrial hygiene when directed at chemicals and dusts; the same process, when used for biologicals, may be termed “biohazard assessment.” Although the principles of biohazard assessment are virtually identical to those of industrial hygiene, systematic biohazard assessment is seldom performed at the level of industrial hygiene standards. Medical surveillance provides a third level of protection and has a dual function.