An integrated occupational health consultation model for the synthetic leather manufacturing industry

This study presents the design of a three-stage consultation process, with eight major consultation items, in order to build an integrated model for improving occupational health by emphasizing the combination of inspection and consultation. Characteristic of the integrated consultation model is the cooperation between different government departments and collaboration with non-governmental, professional consulting organizations, as well as the building of a good partnership relationship with the Synthetic Leather Industrial Association. This model can help small- and medium-sized enterprises in the industry attain actual improvements in the workplace environment with minimal investment. Manufacturers that followed the consultation guidelines, showed a decrease in the mean time-weighted average exposure level of N,N-dimethylformamide from 15.60±16.49 to 5.41±4.16 ppm (p < 0.01). The overall regulations compliance rate greatly increased from 34.1% to 89.7%. These results show that the operation of this consultation model, within Taiwan's synthetic leather manufacturing industry, is successful.