Title: Reading and Audio-Visual Assignments
Course: WGF 106 DEVELOPMENT > Section: Content

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Sub-Title | Occupational Hazzard Control In The Workplace
Content | Occupational (or "industrial" in the U.S.) hygiene (IH) is the control and prevention of hazards from work that may result in injury, illness, or affect the well being of workers. These hazards or stressors are typically divided into the categories biological, chemical, physical, ergonomic and psychosocial.^[1] The risk of a health effect from a given stressor is a function of the hazard multiplied by the exposure to the individual or group.^[2] For chemicals, the hazard can be understood by the dose response profile most often based on toxicological studies or models. Occupational hygienists work closely with toxicologists (see Toxicology) for understanding chemical hazards, physicists (see Physics) for physical hazards, and physicians and microbiologists for biological hazards.
Video | Assessment using the 7 Principals of Healthy Homes – Indoor Air Quality Association (7/20/2013) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuUQO-IHknE
Content
Workplace Assessment Methods

Although there are many aspects to occupational hygiene work the most known and sought after is in determining or estimating potential or actual exposures to hazards. For many chemicals and physical hazards, occupational exposure limits have been derived using toxicological, epidemiological and medical data allowing hygienists to reduce the risks of health effects by implementing the "Hierarchy of Hazard Controls". Several methods can be applied in assessing the workplace or environment for exposure to a known or suspected hazard. Occupational hygienists do not rely on the accuracy of the equipment or method used but in knowing with certainty and precision the limits of the equipment or method being used and the error or variance given by using that particular equipment or method. Well known methods for performing occupational exposure assessments can be found in "A Strategy for Assessing and Managing Occupational Exposures, Third Edition Edited by Joselito S. Ignacio and William H. Bullock".

The main steps outlined for assessing and managing occupational exposures:

- Basic Characterization (identify agents, hazards, people potentially exposed and existing exposure controls)

- Exposure Assessment (select occupational exposure limits, hazard bands, relevant toxicological data to determine if exposures are "acceptable", "unacceptable" or "uncertain")

- Exposure Controls (for "unacceptable" or "uncertain" exposures)

- Further Information Gathering (for "uncertain" exposures)

- Hazard Communication (for all exposures)

- Reassessment (as needed) / Management of Change
Links/Uploads | Occupational Hygiene – Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupational_hygiene Assessment using the 7 Principals of Healthy Homes – Indoor Air Quality Association (7/20/2013) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuUQO-IHknE
Attributions | Image and Content courtesy of Wikipedia – the Free Internet Encyclopedia