The American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) will host a webinar on November 30th addressing the new American National Standards Institute (ANSI)/ASSE Z590.3 standard, “Pevention through Design: Guidelines for Addressing Occupational Risks in Design and Redesign Processes” (PTD). 

The standard holds out the possibility of “engineering out” noise hazards through process design and redesign, along with addressing many other machinery, ergonomic, and toxic exposure risks.

This new standard provides guidance on including prevention through design concepts within an occupational safety and health management system and can be applied in any occupational setting.

The Z590.3 standard focuses on the four key stages of occupational risk management — the pre-operational, operational, post-incident and post-operational stages.

The goals of applying prevention through design concepts in an occupational setting are to: achieve acceptable risk level; prevent or reduce occupational-related injuries, illnesses, and fatalities; and reduce the cost of retrofitting necessary to mitigate hazards and risks that were not sufficiently addressed in the design or redesign processes.

Fred Manuele, CSP, P.E., chair of the Z590.3 committee that developed the standard, stated, “This standard supports and gives guidance for the well-established premise that occupational hazards and risks are most effectively and economically avoided, eliminated or controlled in the design and redesign process.”

The voluntary standard in effect embraces the hierarchy of controls, which OSHA has had trouble implementing due to the high costs of controlling hazards through process design and the lower cost of ignoring design and outfitting workers with PPE such as respirators and hearing protectors.

PTD is addressed by federal and state government agencies and is included in college curriculum. The webinar will be held at 11:00 a.m. CST. Its focus will be to provide attendees an opportunity to learn more about the scope of the standard as well as real-world examples of its application from two industry leaders instrumental in its development.

The webinar speakers are Bruce Main, P.E., CSP, president of Design Safety Engineering, vice-chair of the Z590.3 team, and Paul Schulte, Ph.D., director – education and information division of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).

An electronic copy of the standard, the ANSI/ASSE PTD technical report, and materials related to the standard will be provided to attendees. Attendees also receive 0.2 CEUs.

To register for the webinar click here.