PSM CHAPTER 3: INDUSTRIAL HYGIENE

 DEFINITION
-Definition 1: IOHA  Occupational hygiene is 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.
-Definition 2: AIHA  That science and art devoted to the anticipation, recognition, evaluation and control of those environmental factors and stresses arising
in or from the workplace, which may cause sickness, impaired heath and well-being, or significant discomfort among workers or among citizens of the
community
Government regulation
- protecting people and environment
Typical Industrial Hygiene Practices Anticipation of chemical hazards
-applicable government agency develops and
- Monitoring toxic airborne vapor concentration - OSHA has established permissible exposure limits
proposes a regulation: EPA, OSHA, DHS
- reducing toxic airborne vapor through ventilations (they are defined in time weighted average, TWA for
-selecting proper personal protection equipment to most working conditions, STEL and C)
prevent exposure - ACGIH has established threshold limit values, TLV
-developing procedures for handling hazardous
chemical/materials HYGIENE
-work site analysis: housekeeping, lighting, floors and
drainage

GOAL OF INDUSTRIAL HYGIENE

Anticipation (expectation of the presence of workplace hazards and worker - most difficult
exposure)
Identification (determine the presence of exposure)
Evaluation (determine the magnitude of exposure)
-essential for estimation of exposure and response to one or more hazards
-estimate level of risk, safety professional would need to know
- Involved a detail study of chemical process, operating condition and
operating procedures
- required information included: process design description, operating
instructions, safety review, equipment description, information from
chemical supplies, information from operating personnel
-one of the most important reference is MSDS
- Determine the extent and degree of employee exposure to toxicant/physical
hazards in workplace environment
- evaluating exposure to volatile toxicants by monitoring
- evaluating worker exposure to dust
 - evaluating worker exposure to noise
- evaluating worker exposure to toxic vapours
- estimating the vaporisation rate of liquid

Exposure to volatile toxicants

Single volatile toxicants Multiple volatile toxicants

TWA Concentration (TLV-TWA)mix

∑
Alternative 1: If the summation of the equation >1, then 𝑇𝑊𝐴 = Alternative 1:(𝑇𝐿𝑉 − 𝑇𝑊𝐴) =∑
∑ ( )
the worker is overexposed.
∑
Alternative 2: If the summation of the equation >(𝑻𝑳𝑽 − Alternative 2: (𝑇𝐿𝑉 − 𝑇𝑊𝐴) =
∑
𝑻𝑾𝑨)𝒎𝒊𝒙 , then the worker is overexposed. ( )

****Alternative 1 and 2 can be used to evaluate Worker Exposure to Dusts

and Noise
the Evaluating Worker Exposure to Toxic Vapor and evaluating the
Vaporization Rate Of Liquid can be calculated using following formula:

𝑄 𝑅 𝑇 𝐾𝐴𝑃
𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑐𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑓 𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑙𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑛𝑡, 𝐶 = × 10 = × 10
𝑘𝑄 𝑃𝑀 𝑘𝑄 𝑃

𝑣𝑎𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 /𝑒𝑣𝑎𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑙𝑖𝑞𝑢𝑖𝑑, 𝑄 =

/
𝐾=𝐾 where 𝑄 = 𝑣𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒
k = mixing factor, 0.1-0.5; k =1.0 =perfect mixing

Control (application of applied technology to reduce exposure to acceptable
level)
- Environmental controls: reduces exposed by reducing the concentration of
toxicants in the workplace environment which includes enclosure, installation
of ventilation, wet method and good housekeeping
- Personal protection: prevents or reduces exposure by providing a barrier
between worker and the workplace environment