Hygiene occupational

Occupational hygiene is the science and art devoted to the anticipation, recognition, identification, evaluation, and control of environmental stresses arising out of a workplace that may cause illness, impaired well-being, discomfort, and inefficiency of employees or members of the surrounding community. Occupational hygiene is also described as the science dealing with the influence of the work environment on the health of employees. 

The objective of occupational hygiene is to recognize occupational health hazards, evaluate the severity of these hazards, and eliminate them by instituting control measures. Where the occupational health hazard cannot be eliminated entirely, occupational hygiene control methods aim to reduce the exposure to the hazard and institute measures to reduce the hazard. 

In 1959, the American Industrial Hygiene Association defined occupational hygiene as that science and art devoted to the recognition, evaluation and 

The British Occupational Hygiene Society was founded in 1953 to provide a forum in which specialist experience from many different but related fields could be exchanged and made available to the growing number of occupational hygienists at both national and international level, and to encourage discussion with other managerial and technical professions. The Society holds frequent conferences and meetings. 

The British Examining Board in Occupational Hygiene was set up by the British Occupational Hygiene Society in 1968 to examine candidates to well-defined professional standards. This Board has been superseded by the British Institute of Occupational Hygienists. Similar organisations exist in most advanced industrial nations. 

The next stage is to quantify the extent of the hazard. Measurements of physical and chemical factors and their duration must be related to levels of acceptability and the likelihood of injury or disease arising if the hazard is allowed to continue. These measurements often involve the use of sophisticated measuring devices which must be caUbrated and used very carefully in order to produce meaningful results. 

Having assessed the dangers of the process, the final stage is to decide how best to control the hazard. This may require some radical modification of plant design, special monitoring devices which will warn of increasing danger or the need for protective devices to be used by plant operators. 

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Boleij, J.S.M. et al. (1994J Occupational Hygiene of Chemical and Biological Agents, Elsevier Science Ltd, Amsterdam. Bond, I. (1991) Sources of Ignition - Elammability Characteristics of Chemicals and Products. Butterworth-Hememann, Oxford. 

British Occupational Hygiene Society (1985J The Selection and Use of Personal Sampling Pumps, Technical Guide No. 5, BOHS, Norwood, Science Reviews. 

British Occupational Hygiene Technology Committee (1975J Guide to the Design and Installation of Laboratory Eume Cupboards. 

Safe Handling of Colourants 2 Hazard Classification and Selection of Occupational Hygiene Strategies (1993) Safe Handling of Eonnaldehyde (2nd edn) (1995)... 

Griffiths, R. (ed.) (1995) Sulphur Trioxide, Oleum and Sulphuric Acid Mist, Institution of Chemical Engineers, Rugby. Hamngton, J.M. and Gardiner, K. (1995) Occupational Hygiene, 2nd edn, Blackwell Science, Oxford. 

Harvey, B. (ed.) (1990) Handbook of Occupational Hygiene, Croner Publications, New Malden. 

Some occupational hygiene aspects of man-made mineral fibres and new technology fibres Safe handling requirements dunng explosive, propellant and pyrotechnic manufacture Simplified calculations of blast induced injuries and damage Laboratory work with chemical carcinogens and oncogenes Rosin (colophony) a review... 

Occupational hygiene aspects on the safe use and selection of refngerant fluids... 

Remediation of contaminated land, occupational hygiene aspects on the safe selection and use of... 

Occupational hygiene and health surveillance at industrial timber pre-treatment plants Toxic woods... 

While occupational hygiene measurements always measure only the concentrations of chemical compounds present in the occupational environment, i.e., the potential dose, the analysis of biological specimens predominantly reflects the body burden. Furthermore, biological monitoring is always limited to assessment of individual exposure. Personal occupational hygiene sampling takes into consideration only some of the individual factors, e.g., working... 

Kalhokoski, P., Pfaffli, P., Riiliimaki, V., Starck, J., Yaaranen, V., and Helminen, P. (1992). Occupational Hygiene—Working Conditions and Their Improvement, p, 165. The i- inmsh Institute of Occupational Hygiene, Helsinki (in Finnish). 

For evaluation the velocity distribution and capture velocity could be used. Since the worker is quite close to the contaminant-generating place, occupational hygiene efficiency is possible (Section 10.5). 

British Occupational Hygiene Society (BOHS). Controlling Airborne Contaminants m the Workplace. Technical Guide No. 7. London BOHS, 1987. 

For exterior hoods, the measurement of capture velocity provides a quick check of the ideal design conditions. However, it must be remembered that capture velocity is not a direct measure of the ability of an exterior hood to provide personnel protection. Other efficiency measures are required in order to evaluate its performance in practice. The following two efficiency measurements could be useful capture efficiency and occupational hygiene efficiency. These measures complement each other. 

The occupational hygiene efficiency (tj ,) is defined as the ratio of the contaminant concentrations in the operator s breathing zone (Cj,) with the exhaust hood operating and not operating ... 

This gives a direct measure of the benefits obtained by the hood. In practice, the best way to determine the occupational hygiene efficiency is to measure the actual concentrations in the operator s breathing zone for those two cases. A tracer can also be used with the limitations described above. 

R. P. Clarke. The Performance, Installation, Testing and Limitations of Microbiological Safety Cabinets. Occupational Hygiene Monograph no. 9. Leeds Science Review -s, Ltd., 1983. 

British Occupational Hygiene Society, Fugitive Emissions of Vapours from Process Equipment, Report in Science Reviews, Northwood, UK, 1984. 

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