Occupational Hygiene Risks

A thorough occupational hygiene survey should be conducted and any potential risks eliminated or controlled. Noise, dust, vibration, ventilation, lighting, and similar hygiene risks all impact on employees. The workplace should be free from these hazards. 

There are a number of industry-specific or mine-specific risks that have not been mentioned in this chapter, but the basic concepts mentioned here should be a good indicator of what needs to be done to create a risk-free workplace. An organization cannot have an injury-free workplace until it has a risk-free environment. 

Generally all hazards should be identified and rectified at this stage, both physical and environmental, so that employees are placed in a neat, orderly, hazard-free environment that is conducive to positive attitudes and behaviors. Positive safe behavior cannot be expected from anployees who are placed in an unsafe environment that is not conducive to safe behavior. 

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The Nordic Expert Group for Criteria Documentation of Health Risks from Chemicals (NEG) consisted of scientific experts from the five Nordic countries representing different fields of science, such as toxicology, occupational hygiene, and occupational medicine. The main task was to produce criteria documents (Figure 3.10) to be used by the regulatory authorities of the Nordic countries as the scientific basis for setting Occupational Exposure Limits (OELs) for chemical substances. 

The information included in this chapter is based on contributions over several years from many professionals in Pfizer s Occupational Hygiene Community of Practice, as well as from the professionals in Occupational Toxicology. In addition, we would like to acknowledge the contributions of Jorge Marzari, PhD, CSP in the application of the Layer of Protection Analysis approach to our risk assessment process. Much of the data used for the case studies was generated by Mike Bums and Jeff Kaminski of OccuHealth, Inc. Thanks to Flow Sciences Inc. for the photograph (Fig. 16.2) used in this chapter to illustrate experiences. 

R. Ruhl, E. Lechtenberg-Auffarth and G. Hamm, The Development of Process-Specific Risk Assessment and Control in Germany, Annals of Occupational Hygiene, 2002, 46, 119. 

Brooke, 1. M. (1998). A UK scheme to help small firms control health risks from chemicals toxicological considerations, Annals of Occupational Hygiene, Vol. 42, No 6 pp 377-390. 

Gardiner, L. J. Oldershaw, P. J, (1991). Development of pragmantic exposure control concentrations based on p kaging risk regulation phrases, Annals of Occupational Hygiene, Vol.35, 158-163. 

Marquart, J., Brouwer, D.H., Gijsbers, J.H., Links, I.H., Warren, N., and van Hemmen, J.J. (2003). Determinants of dermal exposure relevant for exposure modeling in regulatory risk assessment. Annals of Occupational Hygiene, Al, 599-607. 

Ross, J.H., Driver, J.H., Cochran, RC., Thongsinthrrsak, T., and Krieger, RI. (2001). Could pesticide toxicology studies be more relevant to occupational risk assessment Annals of Occupational Hygiene, 45(Suppl. 1), S5-S17. 

To guide, educate, train, and motivate all levels of management, unions, contractors, and the workforce in the techniques of accident prevention/ occupational hygiene and environmental control, in an ongoing effort to reduce risk to an acceptable level in order to prevent injury and illness to employees, damage to property, and environmental harm. 

For a work situation to carry a risk to health there must not only be hazardous substances present, there must also be the potential for exposure to those substances at levels which may give rise to harmful effects. Occupational hygiene may be viewed as the science and practice of ... 

The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) Regulations 1988 is a comprehensive piece of legislation stemming from the above Act. It lays down a rational approach to the control of risks to health from potential exposure to chemicals in the workplace. The approach encapsulated by COSHH (and its supporting Codes of Practice) is based on the principles of good occupational hygiene practice and covers the following ... 

Council directive 89/391/EEC (1989) states that Where several undertakings share a work place, the employers shall cooperate in implementing the safety, health and occupational hygiene provisions and, taking into account the nature of the activities, shall coordinate their actions in matters of the protection and prevention of occupational risks, and shall inform one another and their respective workers and/or workers representatives of these risks . 

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