Biological agents occupational exposure

Evaluations of occupational exposure to physical agents such as noise, radiation or heat, biological agents, and multiple chemical agents are similar to the process for single chemical substances but have some key differences. 

ACGIH maintains annual editions of the TLVs and BEIs which are used worldwide as a guide for evaluation and control of workplace exposures to chemical substances and physical agents. Threshold Limit Value (TLV ) occupational exposure guidelines are recommended for more than 700 chemical substances and physical agents. There are more than 50 Biological Exposure Indices (BEIs ) that cover more than 80 chemical substances. 

In 2004 (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 53), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention determined that the risks of occupational exposure to biological terrorism agents outweighed the advantages of embalming fatalities and recommended that the body should be buried without embalming. 

Teschke K, Ahrens W, Andersen A, et al. 1999. Occupational exposure to chemical and biological agents in the nonproduction departments of pulp, paper, and paper product mills an international study. Am Ind Hyg Assoc J 60 73-83. 

It is essential to formulate biological monitoring programs on the basis of prior environmental information about known or potential workplace exposures to toxicants since few materials are sufficiently unique to the workplace that biological monitoring can be undertaken without prior documentation of the potential for exposure. Assessments of occupational exposure can be confounded by other environmental sources of toxic agents. 

Effects of environmental chemical agents on human health perhaps represent the bulk of environmental health research. People may be exposed to harmful chemicals in the outdoor air, surface water (lakes, rivers, oceans, etc.), soil, indoor air, at the workplace, in food, or from consumer products. Exposures to chemicals (or other agents) in the workplace are called occupational exposures . Food exposure to chemical or biological agents may occur as a result of agricultural applications, environmental pollution, or are formed when foods are... 

Haz-Map is an occupational health database designed for health and safety professionals and for consumers seeking information about the health effects of exposure to chemicals at work. Haz-Map links jobs and hazardous tasks with occupational diseases and their symptoms. Chemicals and biological agents in Haz-Map are linked to industrial processes and other activities such as hobbies. Occupational diseases and their symptoms are associated with hazardous job tasks and possible exposure to hazardous agents. Information from textbooks, journal articles, and electronic databases such as HSDB (described above) is classified and summarized to create this database. 

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