The hierarchy of controls shows us that well-designed engineering controls can protect workers by eliminating or reducing hazardous conditions to acceptable exposure levels.  Controls generally do not interfere with worker productivity or personal comfort and make the work easier to perform rather than more difficult.  The new NIOSH Engineering Controls Database provides information on effective engineering controls.  You can search by occupation or work process to find a solution that may work to control the exposure in your workplace.

Since the Occupational Safety and Health Act was established in 1970, NIOSH has been developing valuable information, best practices and guidance on engineering control technologies tested during laboratory and field research.  These control technologies have been published in a variety of reports, publications and journal articles, but never in a single repository.  To make the control information more accessible, a database was created to collectively house all the engineering control material.  The database is simple to search, and the control pages are easy to read and understand.

The database contains summaries and schematics/pictures of the controls and details about their effectiveness.  The objective of the database is to provide basic information on engineering control technologies as well as deliver information to users who need engineering control solutions.  The database contains only previously published material authored by NIOSH researchers.  All database entries have been reviewed and edited by subject matter experts for accuracy.

To view the full article click here or visit the NIOSH Engineering Controls Database .

For additional information on topics contained in the database, use NIOSHTIC-2 to search all NIOSH publications.