Hi! It's Lynden25 here! It's been a while, hasn't it? So today I just wanna share my activity output. It's a summary of an article titled "Guide to Industrial Hygiene". Although I am not sure if it really is called a summary or a note of some sort, nonetheless, I am open to constructive criticisms for me to improve.
In case you want to know the site, here it is:
https://www.1ssh.com/industrial-hygiene/guide-to-industrial-hygiene.aspxThe lead image is from this link:
https://www.ehs.ufl.edu/programs/ih/WHAT IS INDUSTRIAL HYGIENE?
The science of controlling hazardous workplace conditions to prevent employees from becoming sick or injured.
Involves recognizing, evaluating, and adjusting for workplace hazards to help keep employees safe and healthy.
Often entails the use of workplace monitoring and analysis to determine the levels of industrial hygiene hazards exposure.
Requires engineering solutions and workplace controls to help minimize those hazards.
Started during 8th century BC – 6th century AD
Roman scholars documented the health risks to workers exposed to sulfur, lead, and zinc
Legislations addressing Industrial Hygiene
Chimney-Sweepers Act of 1788 (ENGLAND)
Metal and Nonmetallic Mines Safety Act of 1966 (UNITED STATES)
Federal Coal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1969 (UNITED STATES)
Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (UNITED STATES)
IMPORTANCE OF INDUSTRIAL HYGIENE
Industrial hygiene is essential because it helps protect employees from several types of injuries and illnesses, including:
Non-fatal illnesses
a. Agricultural Operations
Anthrax
b. Medical settings and laboratories
Hepatitis B and C
Respiratory conditions
a. Mining Industry
Chronic bronchitis
Asbestosis
Pneumonitis
Skin diseases
a. Chemical Factory (Skin contact with hazardous chemicals)
Dermatitis
Eczema
Rashes
Blisters
Poisoning:
a. Accidental Ingestion
Pesticides
Herbicides
Formaldehyde
Cleaning agents
Hearing loss:
a. Environments with high decibel sounds
Airports
Construction sites
Mining sites
Repetitive stress injuries: Occurs when employees perform the same motions many times throughout the workday.
ECONOMIC EFFECTS OF ABSENTEEISM
Industrial hygiene has benefits for employers as well. When employees miss work because of illness or injury, employers tend to suffer losses. Fortunately, proper industrial hygiene helps keep employees safe, healthy, present, and productive. Listed here are the losses employers tended to suffer from:
Lost productivity: Absenteeism in the workplace leads to lost productivity. When employees are absent, they cannot do the same amount of work, and scrambling to cover shifts in one area may lead to staffing shortages in another. And even when employees return, they may be slower and less productive because they still don't feel their best.
Diminished morale: High numbers of injuries and illnesses in the workplace tend to put a damper on employee morale. Plus, decreased employee morale can lead to even further diminished productivity, as well as distractedness, which can result in a vicious cycle of injury.
Lost profits: Studies show that absenteeism costs companies about $3,600 per year for each hourly worker and $2,650 each year for salaried employees. These costs include wages paid during sick leave, the high cost of replacement workers, and the profit losses associated with reduced production.
WHAT DOES AN INDUSTRIAL HYGIENIST DO?
Plays an essential role in ensuring employee safety and health in the workplace.
A certified expert in the identification, evaluation, and control of workplace hazards.
Comprises more than 40% of the OSHA compliance officers who perform inspections in workplaces
Helps develop and set occupational safety and health regulations by evaluating the employees' exposure to workplace hazards. Then outlines what steps are required to control those hazards.
ROLE DURING INDUSTRIAL HYGIENE CONSULTATION
Identification of Hazards or Stressors
The first step in an industrial hygienist's job. They identify hazards and stressors such as toxic chemicals, biohazards, and physical hazards. Performing a worksite assessment in which they evaluate a workplace, identify its hazards and stressors, and work to figure out what needs to change to improve safety and health is the process of identification.
Elimination or Control through Appropriate Measures
After identification, they begin developing a plan for eliminating or controlling those hazards. Usually settles for partial control through the implementation of safety protocol, however, total elimination of the hazard is ideal. They are often involved in the development of standards to protect workers and are often the people who set up the field enforcement protocols and procedures to ensure workplaces are implementing those standards and abiding by them.
OVERVIEW OF INDUSTRIAL HYGIENE HAZARDS AND CONTROLS
According to certified industrial hygienists, industrial hygiene hazards and the controls implemented to reduce them generally take five different forms:
Environmental
Includes stressors like air contaminants. Commonly includes:
Aerosols: classed as particulate contaminants, they are tiny liquid particles. Aerosols are a specific, exceptionally respirable kind of mist.
Dust: the tiny solid particles that form through activities such as abrading, blasting, crushing, drilling, and grinding.
Fibers: long thin, solid particles and are several times bigger in length than in diameter.
Fumes: form when a solid becomes volatilized by burning and then condenses in the air. Most of the time, these solid particles react with the air to form oxides.
Mists: finely separated liquids that hang suspended in the atmosphere. They form when activities such as atomizing, foaming, or splashing disperse a liquid into fine particles or when substances condense from a vapor back into a liquid suspension.
Gases: Examples include carbon monoxide - a common byproduct of the operation of internal combustion engines - as well as welding gases such as acetylene, nitrogen, helium, and argon.
Vapors: forms when substances that exist in solid or liquid states under normal temperature and pressure conditions change into a gaseous form. Cleaning substances, paints, and solvents are particularly susceptible to vaporizing, especially when under pressure or at high heat.
CONTROL: Adequate ventilation and the use of proper PPE, such as respirators and face shields
Chemical
Can take the form of gases, liquids, solids, dust, mists, vapors, and fumes. Harmful when ingested, inhaled, or absorbed through the skin.
CONTROL: Maintain a safety data sheet (SDS) per chemical. SDS comes directly from the manufacturer and contains essential health-related and toxicological information. Each should have a label with information that matches the chemical's SDS.
Biological
Includes bacteria, viruses, and fungi that can cause illnesses. Common in laboratories, medical facilities, and agricultural and food-processing operations. Any industry in which employees may become exposed to human or animal bodily fluids poses a risk of biological contamination.
CONTROL: Proper personal hygiene including hand-washing measures and the use of PPE. As well as adequate ventilation, waste disposal systems, and isolation protocols in the case of highly infectious diseases
Physical
Occurs when workplaces experience excessive levels of physical disruptions.
a. Heat exposure
Environments with extreme heat exposure
Steel mills
Other factories
CONTROL: Reflective shields and protective clothing and goggles
b. Noise
CONTROL: Installing silencers, mufflers, or baffles to reduce noise levels. Enclose noisy machinery. Custom-engineer machinery for quiet operation and ensure all equipment is in good repair and receives regular maintenance
c. Radiation:
Workplaces
Hospitals
Nuclear Industries
Defense Industries
Aviation Industries
Oil Industries
Gas
CONTROL: Protective shields and limiting the time of exposure
d. Vibration: Vibration poses a particular hazard in transportation, where the drivers of logging, mining, and long-haul trucks, cement mixers, and construction equipment must ride over vibrating engines all day. The vibration of heavy equipment in factories can also cause discomfort.
CONTROL: Install shock absorbers and suspension systems in vehicles and mount heavy equipment on specific mounts to help reduce vibration
Ergonomic
Hazards associated with poor posture and task-performing techniques in the workplace.
Hazards
Holding
Lifting
Pushing
Reaching
Walking
Risks
Working on high-speed assembly lines
Performing repetitive motions
Being subjected to vibrations or shocks
CONTROL:
Administrative practices: Rotation ensures that muscles do not become strained through the performance of a single repetitive task. They can also mandate breaks for employees every few hours.
Job site design: Facilities can design their job site with ergonomic best practices in mind.
Tools: Facilities can provide their employees with equipment to ease the physical strain of their duties.
Training: Facilities may provide training to educate employees on the proper techniques for activities like lifting, pulling, and reaching. Instructing employees on how often to take breaks to reduce the risk of injury may also help.
WHAT ORGANIZATIONS INFLUENCE INDUSTRIAL HYGIENE ASSESSMENTS?
Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA)
A federal agency that regulates workplace safety and health. It establishes regulations and performs inspections to determine whether workplaces are abiding by them, and it can issue citations for noncompliance with its regulations.
National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health (NIOSH)
A federal agency and part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Its role is primarily to perform research and give recommendations in the field of occupational safety and health to help boost employee safety and well-being.
American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA)
A nonprofit organization that serves as a professional resource for industrial hygienists. Its goal is to serve as a repository of best practices and educational programs to assist industrial hygienists in their work.
Understanding OSHA's Standards
It is critical for helping workplaces keep their employees safe and healthy. Examples of OSHA's industrial hygiene standards are those that require workplaces to do the following:
Provide fall protection
Prevent mining cave-ins
Prevent exposure to certain infectious diseases
Ensure the safety of workers in confined spaces
Minimize exposure to harmful chemicals
Place guards on dangerous machines
Provide respirators and other safety equipment when necessary
Provide adequate training for hazardous positions
Creating a Successful Industrial Hygiene Program
1. Risk Assessments
It typically involves observing employees at work and determining their exposure to hazards during different tasks.
2. Worksite Analysis & Site Assessments
The industrial hygienist will measure exposure levels, assess task performance analyze the workplace's risks and then recommend corrective action upon discovering any hazardous situation at the worksite.
What to Include:
Identification of a person or team responsible for program oversight and industrial hygiene monitoring.
Preliminary exposure assessments, including industrial hygiene testing and sampling measures.
Identification of hazard areas.
Identification of possible control measures.
Selection and procurement of respiratory protection and other PPE as needed.
Thorough documentation of identified hazards.
Thorough documentation of health and safety protocols to be followed.
Training plan and materials.
3. Communicating the Results of Surveys & Assessments
This helps workers understand what the new protocols require of them and how the new protocols will help keep them safe and healthy.
4. Planning for Change
A facility should design its new industrial hygiene program with enough built-in flexibility to accommodate new hazards and develop effective new controls.
Controls for Industrial Hygiene Hazards
1. Elimination. Involves eliminating the hazard, if possible.
2. Substitution. Involves replacing the hazard with a safer alternative.
3. Engineering Controls. Involves isolating employees from the hazard through structural changes.
4. Administrative Controls. Involves using administrative policies to change how employees work.
5. Personal Protective Equipment. Involves having workers wear PPE to protect themselves during exposure to workplace hazards.
INFOGRAPHICS
Industrial hygiene is essential because it helps protect employees from several types of injuries and illnesses
The two essential roles of the industrial hygienist:
Identification of Hazards or Stressors
Elimination or Control through Appropriate Measures
Adequate ventilation and the use of proper PPE, such as respirators and face shields, are often effective controls for environmental hazards.
Proper personal hygiene – including hand-washing measures and the use of PPE – is essential to help control biological hazards.
Control ergonomic hazards in several ways:
Administrative practices
Job site design
Tools
Training
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) performs research and gives recommendations in the field of occupational safety and health to help boost employee safety and well-being.
Risk assessments typically involve observing employees at work and determining their exposure to hazards during different tasks.
A facility should design its new industrial hygiene program with enough built-in flexibility to accommodate new hazards and develop effective new controls.