Inherent Occupational Health in Process Design

The rationale of the inherent safety concept makes it attractive for adoption to the environmental and health aspects (Hassim, 2010). Kletz (1984) visualized the potential of also applying the concept to the prevention of pollution (environmental aspect) and the avoidance of small continuous leaks into the atmosphere of the workplace (occupational health/industrial hygiene aspect), but he did not evolve it further. 

The adoption of the inherent concept to health started later than safety and environment due to its more complicated underlying principle. Its need to consider both toxicological and technical design disciplines makes the occupational health element receive much less interest in the design of chemical plants rather, active works have been done dominantly from the medical point of view (Hassim, 2010). Health hazards are actually as threatening as, if not more threatening than, process safety hazards. Many do not realize the fact that each year, more people die from occupational-related diseases than by industrial accidents (Wenham, 2002). 

Inherent occupational health (lOH) is the prevention of occupational health hazards (i.e., chemical or physical condition) that have the potential to cause health damage to workers by trying to eliminate the use of hazardous chemicals, process conditions, and operating procedures that may cause occupational hazards to the employees. In this context, inherent occupational health hazards can be defined as a condition, inherent to the operation or use 

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