Author : Jennifer Lee Kraus
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 372 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (318 download)
Book Synopsis The Implementation of ISO 14001-conformant Environmental Management Systems and Occupational Injury & Illness Rates Along the U.S.-Mexico Border by : Jennifer Lee Kraus
Download or read book The Implementation of ISO 14001-conformant Environmental Management Systems and Occupational Injury & Illness Rates Along the U.S.-Mexico Border written by Jennifer Lee Kraus and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Human health and environmental quality are inextricably linked, and should be viewed as a priority along the U.S.-Mexico border. The objective of this study was to determine whether the implementation of ISO 14001 conformant Environmental Management Systems (EMSs) would reduce the incidence of occupational injury and illness. ISO 14001 is a voluntary international standard that provides the specifications for an EMS. This longitudinal study, conducted retrospectively, evaluated the patterns of change in occupational injury and illness rates over time between two cohorts of border facilities--those in the U.S. and maquiladoras in Mexico. Companies were recruited to participate in the study and were placed in one of two study groups; those that had implemented an EMS and those that had not. Participants completed a survey requesting five years of occupational injury and illness (such as that recorded on an OSHA 200 log) and environmental performance (such as volume of hazardous waste generated) data so that repeated measures of occupational and environmental indicators from each participating facility could be obtained and analyzed. In order to assess whether injury and illness rates decreased following implementation of an EMS, negative binomial regression modeling was conducted with an EMS study group by time interaction while controlling for business sector membership. The results indicated the group by time interaction was marginally significant (p = 0.06). A final model was fit without the interaction where, after adjusting for business sector, EMS implementation was not significantly related to injury and illness rates (p = 0.08). However, EMS facilities on the U.S. side of the border had significantly lower occupational injury and illness rates than No EMS facilities (4.5 and 6.8 injuries and illnesses per 200,000 hours worked respectively; p = 0.04). EMS maquiladoras along the Mexican side of the border had a significantly higher rate of injuries and illnesses than No EMS maquiladoras (11.2 and 4.6 injuries and illnesses per 200,000 hours worked respectively; p = 0.01). These results offer for the first time, insight into differences in occupational health between companies that have and have not implemented environmental management systems in a binational setting.