The Research Study of Health Risk Management of Laboratory Workplaces for Policy-Driven Approach to Prevention and Control of Occupational and Environmental Diseases Caused by Toxic Chemicals

Abstract

According to many potential health hazards in laboratory workplaces, the research study was aimed to study the health risk management for driving policy on occupational and environmental diseases caused by toxic chemicals from laboratory workplaces. The research was carried out by three phases. Phase I (2008 - 2011) studied the health risk factors by health risk assessment accompanied with the in-depth interview in five kinds of specific sampling laboratories in both government organization and non-government organization, locating in 10 provinces of Thailand, for the baseline data. Phase II (2012 – 2016) and Phase III (2017 – 2019) conducted to the comparison of the secondary data about policy of the four mains-involved ministries and relevant research studies. The obtained data were analyzed and interpreted by the descriptive statistic. The results showed that 80 percent of laboratory workplaces had no any occupational health and safety, and waste management. The 100 percent of laboratory workplaces had no health examination by risk factors on the same standard. In addition, the 100 percent of policies of the four mains-involved ministries had no focusing on the same standards in both health examination by risk factors and the waste management to the surrounding community. Besides, there was no regulation of the mentioned issues on the government laboratory. Therefore, the policies for standard criteria of health examination by risk factor for laboratory workers and waste management for environment of surrounding community should be driven by the cooperation mechanism among the four mains-involved ministries.