Basic Principles in Occupational Hygiene: Evah Maina

BASIC PRINCIPLES IN
OCCUPATIONAL HYGIENE
EVAH MAINA
Course Aims
• To provide a practical understanding of
occupational hygiene for people who need
to manage or advise on workplace health
issues in their employment.
• To provide a foundation for students who
wish to undertake more in-depth study in
individual occupational hygiene subjects.
• To inform and enthuse students about the
field of occupational hygiene.
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this module you should have a
basic understanding of:
• The value of occupational hygiene and the role of the
occupational hygienist
• The range of health hazards encountered in the
workplace.
• Hazard recognition techniques
• Sources and potential routes of occupational exposure
• Exposure assessment and the measurement processes
involved
• Methods of controlling exposure
• The management of occupational hygiene programmes.
What is Occupational Hygiene?
The International Occupational Hygiene Association (IOHA)
defines Occupational Hygiene as:
'The discipline of anticipating, recognizing, evaluating

and controlling health hazards in the working environment
with the objective of protecting worker health and well-
being and safeguarding the community at large.'
What is Occupational Hygiene?
Work Activity
Occupational
Exposure
Hygiene
Occupational
Health
Occupational
Disease
Medicine
Introduction
• Work is essential for life, development and
personal fulfilment.
• Unfortunately, indispensable activities such
as food production, extraction of raw
materials, manufacturing of goods, energy
production and services involve processes,
operations and materials which can, to a
greater or lesser extent, create hazards to the
health of workers and those in nearby
communities, as well as to the general
environment.
• However, the generation and release of
harmful agents in the work environment
can be prevented, through adequate
hazard control interventions, which not
only protect workers’ health but also limit
the damage to the environment often
associated with industrialization.
• If a harmful chemical is eliminated from a
work process, it will neither affect the
workers nor go beyond, to pollute the
environment.
• The profession that aims specifically at the
prevention and control of hazards arising
from work processes is occupational
hygiene.
• The goals of occupational hygiene include
the protection and promotion of workers’
health, the protection of the environment
and contribution to a safe and sustainable
development.
Occupational hygienist
• anticipate the health hazards that may result
from work processes, operations and
equipment, and accordingly advise on their
planning and design
• recognize and understand, in the work
environment, the occurrence (real or
potential) of chemical, physical and biological
agents and other stresses, and their
interactions with other factors, which may
affect the health and well-being of workers
• design, recommend for adoption, and
evaluate the effectiveness of control
strategies, alone or in collaboration with
other professionals to ensure effective and
economical control
• participate in overall risk analysis and
management of an agent, process or
workplace, and contribute to the
establishment of priorities for risk
management
• understand the legal framework for
occupational hygiene practice in their own
country
• understand the possible routes of agent
entry into the human body, and the effects
that such agents and other factors may
have on health
• assess workers’ exposure to potentially
harmful agents and factors and to evaluate
the results
• evaluate work processes and methods,
from the point of view of the possible
generation and release/propagation of
potentially harmful agents and other factors,
with a view to eliminating exposures, or
reducing them to acceptable levels
• educate, train, inform and advise persons
at all levels, in all aspects of hazard
communication
• work effectively in a multidisciplinary team
involving other professionals
• recognize agents and factors that may
have environmental impact, and
understand the need to integrate
occupational hygiene practice with
environmental protection.
Goal of occupational Hygiene
• Worker safety and well-being
– Anticipation
– Recognition
– Evaluation
– Control
HEALTH HAZARDS
Gases, vapours, solids, fibres, liquids,
Chemical agents
dusts, mists, fumes, etc.
Noise and vibration
Physical agents Heat and cold
Electromagnetic fields, lighting etc.
Biological agents Bacteria, fungi, etc.
Ergonomic factors Lifting, stretching, and repetitive motion
Psychosocial factors Stress, workload and work organisation

Industrial Hygiene Subject Matter
• What, How much, What is to be done???
• Identification of Hazards
– experience
– study
– defined by client
• Evaluation of Hazards
– Monitoring: sample collection & analysis
• Control of Hazards
– engineering, admin., work practices, PPE
ANTICIPATING AND RECOGNIZING
ANTICIPATION – this involves identifying potential hazards

in the workplace before they are introduced.
RECOGNITION - this involves identifying the potential

hazard that a chemical, physical or biological agent - or an
adverse ergonomic situation - poses to health.
EVALUATION
EVALUATION of the extent of exposure to the chemical hazards,

physical or biological agents (or adverse ergonomic situation) in the
workplace. This often involves measurement of the personal
exposure of a worker to the hazard/agent in the workplace,
particularly at the relevant interface between the environment and
the body, e.g. breathing zone, hearing zone, and assessment of the
data in terms of recommended occupational exposure limits (OELs),
where such criteria exist.
CONTROL
CONTROL of the chemical, physical or biological

agent - or adverse ergonomic situation, by
procedural, engineering or other means where the
evaluation indicates that this is necessary.
Typical OH Problems
• Survey flooded building for mold
• Health Hazard Survey in factory
• Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) evaluation
• Monitor asbestos
• Lead Inspection - adult/child protection
• Noise survey, printing plant
• OSHA Compliance consultation
Occupational Health Team
• Occupational Physicians
• Industrial or ”occupational” Hygienists
• Occupational Health Nurse
• Microbiologist
• Engineers
• Safety Personnel
• Ergonomists
• Chemists & Lab Personnel
• radiation, toxicology, epidemiology
History of Occupational Hygiene
• 400 BC Hippocrates in ancient
Greece first noted illness in
mercury sulphide workers.
• Ca 1540 Paracelsus in Austria
described lung diseases in
mineworkers
Agricola (ca 1556)
• 1700 Ramazzini, the father of industrial

medicine, and Professor of Medicine in Padua,
wrote “De Morbis Artificum Diatriba”, the first
formal study of industrial diseases.
• It was he who added an addition to Hippocrates
list of questions to patients when taking a
history, namely “what is your occupation?”
The Industrial revolution from the late 1700s through to the
late 1800s led to increased urbanisation and
industrialisation. Picture of Manchester UK.
• 1858 John Stenhouse introduces a charcoal

impregnated mask to control exposure to gases
and vapours.
1889 - Exposure limits are set for humidity and carbon dioxide in cotton mills in the UK.
• 1890s - Haldane undertakes work on the toxicity of Carbon
Monoxide by exposing rats mice and even himself to varying
concentrations within an “exposure chamber”.
• He used these results to develop

“dose v time” plots for severity and
discomfort of health effects.
• He introduces the use of small

animals and in particular Canaries
as the first way of monitoring to give
an indication of the levels of toxic
gas.
1910 Alice Hamilton works in

the US as the first Industrial
toxicologist pioneering the
field of toxicology and
occupational hygiene.
• 1917 - During the first world war, the urgency of the work in munitions factories led
to poor working conditions.
• The work of the “Health of Munitions Workers Committee” laid the ground for many
subsequent practices in ergonomics, psychology, welfare and shift-work regimes.
• 1920s-30s - Industrial hygiene develops and grows in the USA in both the
Public Health Service (PHS) and large private companies. These
developments lay the foundations for the creation of two professional
organisations.
• 1938/9 - The American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygiene

(ACGIH) and the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) were
formed. The first independent professional organisations for
industrial/occupational hygienists . IH numbers in USA grow rapidly during
WWII to assist the war effort.
• 1953 - British Occupational Hygiene Society (BOHS) founded. Society starts

publishing Annals of Occupational Hygiene in 1958.
• 1960s - Occupational Safety and Health Act in the USA and the Health and
Safety at Work Act in the UK lay the path for Risk Assessment / performance
based legislation.
• 1970s - Occupational Safety and Health Act in the USA and the Health
and Safety at Work Act in the UK lay the path for Risk Assessment /
performance based legislation.
• 1980/90s - The practice of occupational hygiene grows widely in the USA,

UK, The Netherlands and Australia with legislation in these countries
being introduced specifically to focus on chemical and physical hazards.
• 2000s - The societies of 25 different countries are members of the

International Occupational Hygiene Association (IOHA).
– Industrialisation in countries such as China and India increase the

need for Occupational hygiene.
– The development of modelling techniques for assessing exposure.

The Importance of Occupational Hygiene
The World Health Organisation estimates

that globally there are:
• 2,000,000 work-related deaths per year.
• 386,000 deaths each year from exposure to
airborne particulates.
• 152,000 deaths per year from carcinogens in
the workplace.
• 37% of Lower Back Pain is attributed to
occupation.
The Importance of Occupational Hygiene
That means approximately 228 people have

died from work related injury or ill health since
we started an hour ago.
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BASIC PRINCIPLES IN

'The discipline of anticipating, recognizing, evaluating

Biological agents Bacteria, fungi, etc.

Ergonomic factors Lifting, stretching, and repetitive motion

Psychosocial factors Stress, workload and work organisation

ANTICIPATION – this involves identifying potential hazards

RECOGNITION - this involves identifying the potential

EVALUATION of the extent of exposure to the chemical hazards,

CONTROL of the chemical, physical or biological

• 1700 Ramazzini, the father of industrial

• 1858 John Stenhouse introduces a charcoal

• He used these results to develop

• He introduces the use of small

1910 Alice Hamilton works in

• 1938/9 - The American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygiene

• 1953 - British Occupational Hygiene Society (BOHS) founded. Society starts

• 1980/90s - The practice of occupational hygiene grows widely in the USA,

• 2000s - The societies of 25 different countries are members of the

– Industrialisation in countries such as China and India increase the

– The development of modelling techniques for assessing exposure.

The World Health Organisation estimates

That means approximately 228 people have

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