Causes of health hazards

at work, an employee is subjected to certain conditions or materials there could be a reaction resulting in ill-health. In many of these cases the hazards are known and the symptoms recognized. This section considers some of the main causes of occupational ill health. 

Although there are many causes of health hazards at work, there are also a wide range of equipment and techniques to protect employees from them. Protection from these hazards is required by COSHH Regulations and is dealt with in Sections 11.1 to 11.8. 

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Industrial Hygiene Reviews These reviews evaluate the potential of a process to cause harm to the health of people. It is the science of the anticipation, recognition, evaluation, and control of health hazards in the environment. It usually deals with chronic, not acute, releases and is involved with toxicity. 

Toxic hazards may be caused by chemical means, radiation, and noise. Routes of exposure are (1) eye contact, (2) inhalation, (3) ingestion, (4) skin contact, and (5) ears (noise). An Industrial Hygiene Guide (IHG) is based on exposures for an 8-h day, 40-h week, and is not to be used as a guide in the control of health hazards. It is not to be used as a fine hne between safe and dangerous conditions. 

Hazard identification is defined as tlie process of determining whetlier human exposure to an agent could cause an increase in the incidence of a health condition (cancer, birtli defect, etc.) or whetlier exposure to nonliumans, such as fish, birds, and otlier fonns of wildlife, could cause adverse effects. Hazard identification cliaracterizes tlie liazard in terms of tlie agent and dose of the agent. Since tliere are few hazardous chemicals or hazardous agents for wliich definitive exposure data in humans exists, tlie identification of health hazards is often characterized by the effects of health hazards on laboratory test animals or other test systems. ... 

Furthermore, from around 1996 onward Japanese public became increasingly concerned about environmental contamination caused by releases from waste incinerator facilities. In 1997 dioxins were designated as hazardous air pollutants and measures were introduced to control their emission into the atmosphere in terms of the preventive actions taken to reduce risks of health hazards under the Air Pollution Control Law (Law No. 97 of 1968). Furthermore, in July 1999, the law concerning special... 

Perfume materials have not been involved in any known cases of health hazards through accumulation in the environment. They are not a serious cause for concern regarding accumulation as such (without toxicity effects) because of the relatively small amounts in which they are produced and used. Nevertheless, for the reasons already discussed, the perfumer is sometimes faced with a demand for proposing fragrances with a high degree of biodegradability. 

Today, almost everyone works or lives with chemicals and chemical prodncts. Over the centuries man has lived in a chemical age, but especially so during the past several decades. Many of the chemical substances can have deleterious effects on animals, humans, and the environment. These substances are capable of causing physical hazards (e.g., lire or explosion) or health hazards (such as systemic toxicity and chemical bums). Improper use of chemical substances causes a wide range of health hazards. It is the responsibility of the user to evaluate each chemical substance and know its potential to cause adverse health effects and pose physical hazards, such as flammability in the workplace. The manufacturers, importers, and distributors of different chemical substances must be sure that containers of hazardous chemicals leaving the workplace are properly labeled with the identity of the chemical and appropriate hazard warnings. In the workplace, each container must be marked with the identity of hazardous chemicals contained in it and must show hazard warnings appropriate for employee protection. 

The indiscriminate, improper, and careless use and management of pesticides have caused untold health hazards to animals and humans and to the living environment... 

But a tragic problem associated with the kitchen meth labs that arc proliferating around the country is that the products they use po.se a significant public health problem because of risk of explosion and because they produce toxic waste. Many of the chemicals used to produce meth are highly flammable, and the process also requires that the ingredients be heated with a burner therefore, a significant risk of explosion and fire is present. Several of the chemicals used to make meth are toxic, as arc some of the by-products that can cause significant health hazards wherever they are... 

Thus chronic exposure to this compound can cause serious health hazard. The signs of toxicity in humans are headache, fever, profuse sweating, rapid pulse and respiration, cough, shormess of breath, and coma. Other symptoms noted are a decrease in hemoglobin, an increase in blood sugar, a loss of muscle tone, dyspnea, kidney and liver injury, and edema of the lung and brain. 

The effect of these deposits varies considerably between spores in food-packaging paper, potentially causing a health hazard, organic deposits breaking away from the surface of a pipe to form a spot in the paper or cause a paper break. 

Some of these plastics and rubbery materials can cause some health hazards to humans, mostly due to the additives that they contain. These hazards are in addition to other possible sources of toxins indoors. In fact, the environment of modern society, both indoors and outdoors, can (unfortunately) full of a number of toxic chemicals. And specifically in the case of indoors, the concentration of toxics can be even higher and more critical than their counterparts in the outdoors, because there is a closed environment involved with the inside. According to a study by US Federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), indoor air is often a greater source of exposure to hazardous chemicals than is outdoor exposure . 

One of the constant concerns of numerous industries where either aerosols or toxic vapors are produced is the effects of these upon workers. A variety of health problems arise because of the workers inhaling gases and aerosols of irritant or toxic fibers which are produced in the normal course of activities. A less obvious hazard arises from the attachment of trace molecular species to particles. If these trace species are radioactive or chemically toxic, the particles, which effectively concentrate them, provide a vehicle for delivery deep within the body causing a health hazard far beyond that suggested by their gross molecular concentration in the air [1.31,32]. Kinetic theory, thermodynamics, and interaction forces, all enter into descriptions of the attachment process. 

To identify and measure substances present that could migrate into the packaged foods and cause a health hazard to the consumer of the food. This work is often accompanied by measurements of the migration of particular substances into either the actual packaged foods, or into food simulants. 

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