Industrial hygiene process

The Industrial hygiene process and the questions it seeks to answer about worker exposure... 

As with evaluation, control efforts must first be targeted on the worst as determined through the three previous phases of the industrial hygiene process. In the profession of industrial hygiene, a hierarchy of controls is recognized. In order of priority, these are engineering controls, administrative controls (work practices), and as a last resort for routine or daily exposure control, use of PPE. A complete list of all controls for aU potential hazards encountered in mining is beyond the scope of this chapter however, some basic control concepts and examples of different controls follow. 

The purpose of hazard analysis and risk assessment ia the chemical process industry is to (/) characterize the hazards associated with a chemical facihty (2) determine how these hazards can result in an accident, and (J) determine the risk, ie, the probabiUty and the consequence of these hazards. The complete procedure is shown in Figure 1 (see also Industrial hygiene Plant safety). 

The evaluation phase of industrial hygiene is the process of making measurements on some set of samples which permits a conclusion about the degrees of hazard. Before conducting an evaluation, it is necessary to make a number of choices of what and where to sample, when to sample, how long to sample, how many samples to take, what sampling and analytical methods to use, what exposure criteria to use in the analysis of the data, and how to report the results. These choices as a whole constitute the evaluation plan. The object is to find if one or more workers have an unacceptable probabiUty of being exposed in excess of some estabUshed limit. 

BTX processing has come under steadily increasing pressure to reduce emissions and workplace exposures (see Industrial hygiene). Reductions in the permissible levels of both benzene and total aromatics (BTX) in gasoline have been legislated. Whereas all BTX components ate to be controUed, the main focus is on benzene because it is considerably mote toxic than the others and is classified as a known carcinogen (42). 

SHEL (Safety Healthy Environmental and Loss Prevention Reviews) These reviews are performed during design. The purpose of the reviews is to have an outsider s evaluation of the process and layout from safety, industrial hygiene, environmental, and loss prevention points of view. It is often desirable to combine these reviews to improve the efficiency of the use of time for the reviewers. 

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. 

Introduction Review and audit processes are used in the chemical process industry to evaluate, examine, and verify the design of process equipment, operating procedures, and management systems. These processes assure compliance with company standards and guidelines as well as government regulations. Reviews and audits can encompass the areas of process and personnel safety, environmental and industrial hygiene protection, quality assurance, maintenance procedures, and so on. 

The air inside a factory building can be polluted by release of contaminants from industrial processes to the air of the workroom. This is a major cause of occupational disease. Prevention and control of such contamination are part of the practice of industrial hygiene. To prevent exposure of workers to such contamination, industrial hygienists use industrial ventilation systems that remove the contaminated air from the workroom and discharge it, either with or without treatment to remove the contaminants, to the ambient air outside the factory building. 

Check the toxicity of process materials, identify short and long term effects for various modes of entry into the body and different exposure tolerance Identify the relationship between odour and toxicity for all process materials Determine the means for industrial hygiene recognition, evaluation and control Determine relevant physical properties of process materials under all process conditions, check source and reliability of data... 

The first major objective for the inherent safety review is the development of a good understanding of the hazards involved in the process. Early understanding of these hazards provides time for the development team to implement recommendations of the inherent safety effort. Hazards associated with flammability, pressure, and temperature are relatively easy to identify. Reactive chemistry hazards are not. They are frequently difficult to identify and understand in the lab and pilot plant. Special calorimetry equipment and expertise are often necessary to fully characterize the hazards of runaway reactions and decompositions. Similarly, industrial hygiene and toxicology expertise is desirable to help define and understand health hazards associated with the chemicals employed. 

Industrial hygiene/toxicology people need to develop acute and chronic toxicology information on all the materials used and produced in the process. This information should also include the potential products of abnormal reactions. The industrial hygiene member of the team should be prepared to explain the toxicology information on the material safety data sheet (MSDS) to the review team. 

A nonprofit professional organization that promotes aerosol research in areas including industrial processes, air pollution, and industrial hygiene. Composed of scientists and engineers associated with universities, technical institutes, private firms, and government representatives. 

Functions such as industrial hygiene (the protection of worker health against occupational hazards) and hazardous waste mcmagement involve the control of hazards arising from processes. As with process safety, you can attempt to use engineering-based solutions alone, but will find that ongoing control of hazards is difficult to achieve. Designing-in hazard control and... 

Process documentation and knowledge As defined by CCPS guidelines, this element includes collection and retention of information important to industrial hygiene management... 

Process risk management Industrial hygiene risks should be periodically reviewed as are process safety risks. Some of the process hazard assessment techniques used for PSM can be expanded to include consideration of industrial hygiene issues... 

Audits and corrective actions Audits for industrial hygiene compliance can be performed concurrent with, or separately from, process safety management audits... 

Enhancement of process safety knowledge Enhancement of industrial hygiene knowledge is an analogous need... 

In Exhibit 2-8 the need for new, or modified, control programs or elements could arise either because you have introduced a new process or facility, or modified an existing one. These changes may introduce new process hazards, new occupational safety or industrial hygiene issues or new environmental concerns. Any new hazards need to be assessed so that the company can decide whether they are tolerable or require new controls to... 

In the case of Cleanser Chemicals, Inc., the company formed a multifunctional team to assess commonalities across its existing Safety, Loss Prevention, Security, Medical, Industrial Hygiene and Environment functions. As a result of this assessment, many common requirements and potential work processes were identified, including ... 

Industrial Hygiene Reviews These reviews evaluate the potential of a process to cause harm to the health of people. The review... 

Measurement devices, accuracy of, 20 679 Measurement method selection, in industrial hygiene, 14 216-217 Measurements, in minerals recovery and processing, 16 664... 

Diversification. First diversification occurs because resources are diverted toward less characteristic functions. Two specific areas where TSCA has had impacts are personnel and products. Research, development, manufacture, process and Industrial Hygiene personnel must meet early in the potential product s life to make predictions concerning areas specific to each. This tends to give anyone present a somewhat broader view of the products with which they are involved. 

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