Industrial Hygiene: Keeping Employees Safe and Healthy

The total health and safety of all employees, including executive suite staff sitting at their offices and warehouse laborers, falls under the purview of the organizations. Industrial hygiene, which is the science concerned with the anticipation, recognition, evaluation, communication, and control of environmental stressors in the workplace that may cause injury, illness, impairment, or other effects on the wellbeing of workers and community members1, is necessary for ensuring employee safety and health.Because industrial hygienists are trained to evaluate safety concerns and find solutions to problems, it is important that managers at all levels and across functions are able to effectively work with and manage industrial hygienists.

Introduction to Industrial Hygiene

As previously stated, industrial hygiene is concerned with locating, assessing, and reducing actual or potential stresses or dangers in the workplace that may have an impact on the health of employees and members of the community. It is also known as Workplace Health, Occupational Hygiene, and Occupational Health. Prior to a problem for workers, dangers should ideally be detected and controlled when a workplace is planned, when conditions or procedures change, or through yearly evaluations. An industrial hygienist will examine workplace risks using exacting scientific procedures, including risk assessment instruments and data like Safety Data Sheets, which are produced by chemical producers and provide comprehensive information on each chemical. In addition to resolving issues with particular tasks or work areas, industrial hygienists can analyze the worksite to assess all jobs, operations, equipment, and work activities there.

Important Industrial Hygiene Elements

• Ergonomics Ergonomics' (the study of people at work) objective is to lessen stress and get rid of injuries brought on by poor posture, misuse of the muscles, and repetitive motions. In order to ensure that jobs are tailored to the worker and that workers are adequately instructed on topics like how to lift boxes properly, it is crucial to involve workers in the process of implementing an ergonomics intervention.
• Noise: Workers who are exposed to noise for an extended period of time, whether it be desired or unwelcome, risk hearing loss. There are numerous approaches to deal with noise problems, including constructing a facility to limit noise, keeping workers as far away from noisy equipment as feasible, and deploying technologies to protect workers.
• Temperature: Both extreme high and low temperatures can harm workers. Workers are susceptible to heat exhaustion or a heat stroke if temperatures are too high; a heat stroke is a medical emergency that needs to be treated right away. 
• Indoor air quality: Many elements, such as pollution from tools or equipment inside the building, traffic pollution outside the structure, dust from mechanical processes, or gasses, might have an effect on indoor air quality.
• Chemical exposure: Chemical dangers can enter a worker's system by absorption, inhalation, or ingestion and can take on a variety of forms, including liquid, vapors, and dust. Cleaning supplies, gas, and pesticides are a few typical substances that could be dangerous.
• Radiation: Ionizing radiation and non-ionizing radiation are the two forms of radiation. The non-ionizing radiation types most likely to put workers' safety at risk, typically leading to burns, are ultraviolet (UV) radiation and laser radiation; UV radiation is a particular issue for outside workers. Ionizing radiation damages cells and poses greater long-term health hazards for employees, including the development of cancer and sterility. Ionizing radiation exposure should be kept to a minimum, and personnel should be protected from radiation by substances like lead or concrete.
• Biological hazards: Living things that can enter the body include bacteria, viruses, and fungus can result in both acute and chronic infections. All workers can be at risk for biological hazards, like mold and bacteria that cause Legionnaire's disease, but those who work with plants, animals, or in laboratories or hospitals are particularly vulnerable.
• Eliminating or Controlling Hazards: It is possible to eliminate or minimize the potential hazard if dangerous situations have been discovered. Designing the risk out of the process or operation is the first step, followed by providing local exhaust ventilation, creating correct work practices, providing suitable personal protective equipment (PPE), and taking appropriate administrative steps.

Controlling potential health risks that affect both employees and your business can be done by maximizing these aspects of industrial hygiene through monitoring, assessing, and creating solutions to eliminate those hazards. If you like to develope your skills in this field, you can register in our Basic Concepts in Industrial Hygiene training course