Medical Exams for Sea Lamprey Program.

Description of Service and Compelling Need: The Medical Surveillance program was instituted for the Marquette and Ludington BiologicalStations due to regular and recurring employee exposures to serious chemical and biologicalhazards in the performance of their duties. The medical program requires new employees to passa medical clearance exam before starting work and complete a medical surveillance exam basedon exposure to hazardous materials at the conclusion of the field season. Contracting for medicalservices under the established program is required to identify early indications of exposures ortheir resulting health effects so preventative or intervention measures can be taken beforepermanent or serious harm has occurred. Unique Qualifications: Occupational medicine services for the sea lamprey control program have been contracted toMarquette General Hospital for the past 15+ years to maintain consistent review of medicalresults. Consistency in review of medical results and record keeping for the medical program isimperative to identify early indications of health effects and analyze trends for groups ofemployees over time. Dr. Eric Rose is an occupational medicine specialist with MarquetteGeneral Hospital and the sea lamprey medical program physician. He is uniquely qualified toremain the medical program physician because of his extensive history with the program andparticipation in development of the medical standards. Dr. Rose is also very knowledgeableregarding the essential job functions and the environmental conditions under which sea lampreycontrol employees work. Contracting with Marquette General Hospital for OccupationalMedicine Services would maintain consistency of the medical program for the Marquette andLudington Biological Stations and ensure uniform medical evaluation of applicants andincumbents of the sea lamprey control program.