Assignment 5 (13/03/2017)

Industrial hygiene is the science of anticipating, recognizing, evaluating, and controlling

Your group is as an Industrial Hygienists Team (IHT) in a company, so how do IHT's

“Recognize that engineering, work practice, and administrative controls are the primary means of
reducing employee exposure to occupational hazards. Engineering controls minimize employee
exposure by either reducing or removing the hazard at the source or isolating the worker from the
hazards.”

1. CASE STUDY
(OSHA compliance, industrial hygiene, safety program, noise monitoring)
A small manufacturing company was cited by OSHA for not determining if its
employees’ noise exposure exceeded an eight hour average of 85 dBA. The abatement
date was only three weeks after the citation was issued. Within two weeks, and before the
abatement date, IHT:

· Completed representative noise monitoring

· Determined that a hearing conservation program was needed

· Explained the results and requirements to the company’s general manager

· Provided the company with a report of the results

· Drafted a hearing conservation program customized for the client and reviewed it with

the person responsible for implementing it

testing

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 2. CASE STUDY
(OSHA compliance, industrial hygiene, exposure monitoring)
A small manufacturing company was visited by an OSHA health compliance officer. The
company uses both a volatile solvent and small amounts of methylene chloride in one
operation. The OSHA industrial hygienist told the company that air monitoring was
needed, as the manufacturer of the product containing the volatile solvent had a
recommended exposure limit just a little bit above the concentration found in previous
monitoring. While the OSHA industrial hygienist offered to do the monitoring, the
company was not comfortable with that. Within two weeks, IHT was able to complete the
monitoring and offer concrete recommendations, at minimal cost, that would reduce
employee exposure.

3. CASE STUDY
(Respirators, training, industrial hygiene)
The staff and physicians of an occupational health clinic wanted additional training on a
number of hazardous substances to which their patients were exposed – asbestos, silica,
cadmium, hexavalent chromium, lead…. IHT’s Certified Industrial Hygienist held lunch
and learn seminars for them, discussing how their clientele could be exposed, what the
hazards were, and what requirements OSHA had for medical monitoring. She has also
done training for these and other occupational physicians on respirators – what types
exist, how they are used, what respirators can and cannot do, and how to correctly
conduct respirator fit testing.

4. CASE STUDY
(Industrial hygiene, training, respirators, fit testing)
A state agency charged with investigating chemical releases (after the initial site
assessment has been done) hired IHT to provide training on the use of personal protective
equipment, including respirators. Because the agency employees could be in a range of
situations, the training included guidelines on how to choose the right level of protection.
The training included scenarios based on the most common situations the employees
encounter, where the employees could use the resources provided during the class to
determine the protective measures needed for those situations.

5. CASE STUDY
(Industrial hygiene, chemical safety)
A client wanted its product approved for use for government construction work in
Manitoba, California, and Michigan. IHT determined what submittals were required and
prepared those submittals or provided guidance to the client on how to submit. We also
arranged for laboratory testing of the material as needed, to show compliance with the
specifications. The products received approval.

6. CASE STUDY
(Industrial hygiene, exposure monitoring, respirators, fit testing, safety programs)
A small pyrotechnics company was developing its safety and health programs, and called

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 IHT for assistance with baseline monitoring. IHT reviewed the substances used and
developed a monitoring plan. When we did the monitoring, we discovered that employees
were wearing the wrong type of respirators for the work done. While onsite, IHT's
Certified Industrial Hygienist trained the employees on correct respirator use, did fit-
testing, and showed them how to perform their own qualitative fit testing. Once we
received the monitoring results, we advised them on the need for respirators and
suggested some control measures to reduce that need. Based on our time on-site we were
also able to provide them with guidance on what needed to be included in their safety and
health programs.

7. CASE STUDY
(Respirators, personal protective equipment, exposure assessment)
A company that did aircraft maintenance needed to determine if its spray booth was
adequate, and if employees needed to wear respirators during specific tasks. After an
onsite evaluation, IHT:

· Advised them on how to operate the spray booth so it worked correctly.

· Provided guidance on when the paint booth filters needed to be changed.

· Provided guidance on when respirators were and were not required.

· Provided guidance on appropriate glove selection.

8. CASE STUDY
(Exposure monitoring, industrial hygiene)
An equipment manufacturer wanted to change to a polyurethane paint. A trial run with
the paint, though, caused the employees throughout the shop to complain about the odor.
The company wanted to do a test run, comparing the old and the new paints, on a day
when the plant was normally closed (that way, if the odor was again a serious problem,
the number of employees affected would be low). IHT's Certified Industrial Hygienist did
the monitoring on a Saturday. We found the newer paint resulted in lower solvent levels
than the old paint. We recommended some changes to their use of personal protective
equipment, and the addition of some control measures such as routine servicing of their
paint booth.

9. CASE STUDY
(Noise monitoring, industrial hygiene)
A food processor needed to determine which employees had to be included in a hearing
conservation program and receive annual audiograms. Reducing the number of
employees in the hearing conservation program could result in significant cost savings.
After monitoring the noise exposure of representative employees throughout the facility,
IHT was able to advise the company that some employees could be excluded from the
annual audiograms. As part of our report, we provided letters the company could give to
each employee monitored, summarizing the employee’s exposure and what the results
meant.

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