Industrial Hygiene Essay

1093 Words3 Pages

Industrial hygiene (IH) is not a subject that is new to the workplace. “There has been an awareness of industrial hygiene since antiquity. The environment and its relation to worker health was recognized as early as the fourth century BC when Hippocrates noted lead toxicity in the mining industry (OSHA 3143 - Industrial Hygeine)”. Earlier scientists and scholars, long before modern society like, the German scholar, Agricola, who invented the idea of wearing a protective mask for workers and introduced the concept of mine ventilation to protect the miners, Bernardo Ramazzini “the father of industrial hygiene”, Ulrich Ellenborg and many others begin to take notice of how the environment was having an effect on the worker’s health and wellbeing …show more content…

These guidelines that OSHA implemented set the standards for industrial hygiene in the workplace. Its purpose is to distinguish what is or is not a hazard, assess the situation while observing the worker in the environment, and control factors or elements in an environment that may cause stress, sickness, impaired health and well-being, or significant comfort among workers or citizens of the community. Industrial hygiene covers many different hazards from air contaminants, chemical and biological hazards to physical and ergonomic hazards and must be effective in recognizing and evaluating these on-the-job hazards as well as ensuring methods of control to abate or eliminate these workplace threats. Before any of those things can be done, first the worksite is analyzed to determine what jobs and work stations are the sources of potential problems. Before any of this can happen there is a hierarchy of methods to follow in this area of hazard control. Engineering, administrative and personal protective equipment, in this order, Controlling or eliminating these hazards would not be possible without occupational health and safety professions such as the industrial hygienist who is a trained scientist, engineer or public health professional and …show more content…

“IH have evolved to reflect more teamwork and consultative approaches to safety and health management (Plog, 1988) one of the most significant influences of the IH is training. They educate the workers and employers in the prevention of occupational disease and stresses, the potential dangers in the workplace, and ensure workers are properly following health and safety procedures. They are highly skilled and serve as an experienced safety engineer or director in charge of an entire IH program. “In fact, the last two decades have seen a significant collapsing of functions into an “SHE” or safety/health/environment function, sometimes with added responsibility in areas such as facility security, worker’s compensation administration, and other aspects of risk management (Plog,

Open Document