Research Services and Litigation Support

Research Services and Litigation Support

OEHS2 conducts literature searches on a wide variety of environmental health and safety topics and summarizes the information for corporate clients and defense/plaintiff attorneys. OEHS2 has access to one of the world's largest collections of books and journals and is particularly adept at researching historical issues. Literature searches were conducted recently to answer the following questions:

What was known during the 20th century about occupational exposures to silica and asbestos, the diseases they cause, workplace conditions, and exposure controls?
What was known during the 20th century about the health and safety hazards associated with work in oil refineries and in the iron and steel industry?
How did the industrial hygiene air sampling methodology and strategy for evaluating worker dust exposures evolve?
How did precautionary labeling and warnings on workplace and household products evolve in the 20th century?
What processes were used to manufacture specific chemicals at various times in the twentieth century and what were the likely exposures to workers?
What health and safety hazards are associated with specific chemicals and what controls should have been in place to prevent worker injuries and illnesses while performing specific tasks?

OEHS2 also writes expert reports on industrial hygiene and safety related issues in support of litigation and testifies in court. Reports were written recently that determined the adequacy of a chemical manufacturer's precautionary label and material safety data sheet, estimated an employee's exposure while cleaning up a chemical spill, described the foundry industry's knowledge of the hazards associated with silica exposure from 1930 to 2000 and estimated a worker's cumulative exposure to asbestos. Tom Ouimet recently testified in a products liability case that was listed in the top one hundred verdicts of 2007 (number 12). You can read a discription of the case here.

To estimate past employee exposures while performing certain tasks, or an employee exposure when using a new alternative work practice, OEHS2 designs and conducts task simulations. Task simulations have been created to estimate worker exposures to asbestos when intruding on plaster walls containing less than one percent asbestos, cutting of asbestos containing wire, removing lead paint, working with a hazardous chemical on a laboratory bench, and cleaning up a hazardous material spill.

View pages from the report of the National Silicosis Conference of 1937

View an example of a task simulation