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Occupational (industrial) hygiene primarily involves anticipating, detecting, assessing and controlling health hazards in work environments with the ultimate goal of protecting workers’ health and safety.
Occupational hygiene uses two main techniques: investigation and diagnosis. Investigation is carried out by researching the causes of observed or anticipated effects through the inspection of work environments, preventive maintenance or the investigation of incidents or accidents. The diagnostic side of industrial hygiene consists of making observations and collecting data in work environments to establish sources of risk, seriousness of risk and the necessary means to reduce risk to an acceptable level or eliminate it altogether.
There are four main sources of risk:
chemical, physical, electrical and biological.
Chemical Risk
- Sampling and contamination analysis in work environments
- Assessment of exposure and compliance with standards
- Respiratory protection program
- Substitution
- Air quality testing
Physical Risk
- Respiratory and skin protection
- Noise: Exposure measurement, source identification, noise elimination and/or hearing protection
- Heat stress and comfort: Exposure measurement, preventive measures and education
- Lighting: Measurement, compliance with standards
Electrical Risk
- Protective equipment and solutions
Biological Risk
- Work environment evaluation
- Bioaerosol analysis
- Control of exposure factors
Respiratory Protection Program Includes:
- Evaluation of respiratory protection needs:
- Identification of all hazardous situations requiring respiratory protection
- For each situation, identification of present contaminants and their concentrations
- Choice of respiratory protection equipment
- Verification that respiratory protection equipment is properly adjusted
- Respiratory protection use policy
- Equipment maintenance and storage procedures
- Training
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