Tenets of industrial hygiene

What Are the Health Hazards that the IH Is Charged with Recognizing, Evaluating, and Controlling  

In theory, the IH is responsible for chemical, biological,physical, and radioactive health hazards within the work environment. In practice, no one individual can be an expert in all of these areas. Control of workplace health hazards has become so complex that in workplaces where most or all of these hazards are present, the management of these hazards is assigned to a team of occupational health professionals. Such a team might include an occupational physician, occupational nurse, safety professional, health physicist (radiation protection), and others. Workplaces with high-risk microbiological exposures may also employ biological safety professionals. 

IH must convince the administration that hazard control expenses are worth every dime. 

Hippocrates (470-410 BC), a Greek physician, is best known as the Father of Medicine. He believed in the natural healing process of rest, a good diet, fresh air, and cleanliness. Hippocrates wrote of the plight of miners exposed to lead and other work-related contaminants. Hippocrates developed a treatise of medical ideology that modern physicians acknowledge prior to beginning their practice. This is better known as the Hippocratic Oath. 

Pliny the Elder (23 AD-79 AD) was a Roman senator, writer, and scientist. In his writings, he described the dangers to workers exposed to zinc and sulfur. He is believed to be the first to recommend respiratory protection when he suggested that miners cover their mouth and nose with an animal bladder when working in the mines. Pliny, a scientist to the end, lost his life trying to investigate the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. 

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As we discussed earlier, the tenets of industrial hygiene are the recognition, evaluation, and control of workplace health hazards. The goal of the IH is to provide a safe and healthful work environment for all workers. 

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