How long does it take to get an occupational health risk assessment appointment?

shortie_chik

On Monday afternoon I contacted a manager in my workplace to ask her to arrange an occupational risk assessment for pregnancy. I hadn't heard back from her 3 days later so I called to follow up this afternoon. She was quite brusque about it, said she's made a call to a HR person and will get back to me. She doesn't know when that might be or how long it could take to arrange.

I am in my fifth week of pregnancy and am somewhat anxious about exposure to some of the chemicals I use for work during these early weeks.

Can anyone give me an idea of how long it might take to have an assessment done? It's a small enough company and the first time anyone in my role in the company has been pregnant so they won't have done this before.

Blingy

shortie_chik wrote: »

On Monday afternoon I contacted a manager in my workplace to ask her to arrange an occupational risk assessment for pregnancy. I hadn't heard back from her 3 days later so I called to follow up this afternoon. She was quite brusque about it, said she's made a call to a HR person and will get back to me. She doesn't know when that might be or how long it could take to arrange.

I am in my fifth week of pregnancy and am somewhat anxious about exposure to some of the chemicals I use for work during these early weeks.

Can anyone give me an idea of how long it might take to have an assessment done? It's a small enough company and the first time anyone in my role in the company has been pregnant so they won't have done this before.

It depends on the company I think. However could you ring hr yourself and explain your concerns and that you want it sooner rather than later. I would have thought since you have requested it and informed your manager they would have gotten back to you before now. Especially when you work with chemicals etc.

shortie_chik

Blingy wrote: »

It depends on the company I think. However could you ring hr yourself and explain your concerns and that you want it sooner rather than later. I would have thought since you have requested it and informed your manager they would have gotten back to you before now. Especially when you work with chemicals etc.

Thanks for your reply.

We don't have any in-house HR people that I can call myself. I think they just contact some outside person when they need to know HR legalities.

There are just a few chemicals I use, and I've been wearing a mask to avoid breathing fumes (as much as possible). But reading what other people's advice on these chemicals in pregnancy is confusing! Some people say don't worry about it, others say avoid for the first 3 months, others say take a 9 month health & safety leave asap!

I guess I can call her again on Monday, and hope I don't get another snippy reply!

Toots

Could you ring your GP or a midwife in the hospital and ask them what they think about working with those particular chemicals?

shortie_chik

Good idea, maybe I can try that. I've found safety data sheets for some of the chemicals online, and I don't know how serious the info on them is. :-/

jadie

What chemicals are they? Have you any H&S person within your company to contact? I'd be cautious as exposure to chemicals at this early stage can be very serious if they are reproductive hazards. You are within your rights to refuse to work with them and if no alternative duties are assigned the company if obliged to office you Health & Safety leave. Alternatively contact the HSA

Squatman

at work you shouldnt be exposed breathing any chemicals, no matter how innocuous it might be. Breathing masks are only as good as the filter used, and the filters can be specific to what it is filtering ie. some only filter 1 checmical. the MSDS might be a good indicator