Occupational Health and

Safety
 Outline

• Definition of terms and Concepts

• Scopes of Occupational Health
• Classification of Occupational Hazards
• Occupational Diseases
• Occupational Disease Control Methods

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 Definition of terms and Concepts

 Occupational health is concerned with the

control of occupational health hazards that arise
as a result of or during work activities
 A person spent about 1/3 of his adult life at
work, where the level and exposure of health
hazards exceeds those other environments by
two or three order of magnitude

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 Definition . . .

• Occupational health /industrial hygiene:

The science and art devoted to the
anticipation, recognition, evaluation, and
control of those environmental factors or
stresses arising in or from the workplace that
may causes sickness, impaired health and well-
being, or significant discomfort among workers
or among the citizens of the community
• Anticipation: to foresee the potential for
disease or injury

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 Definition . . .

• Ergonomics: is the study of law (s) governing

work and its environment.
- The study of how a workplace and the equipment
used there can best be designed for comfort,
efficiency, safety, and productivity

- Ergonomics related injuries and illness are

ranging from
- eyestrain and headaches to musculoskeletal ailments
such as chronic backache, neck and shoulder pain,
etc.
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 Scope of occupational health
- Unfortunately, some employers assume little
responsibility for the protection of workers’
health and safety
- In fact, some employers do not even know that
they have the moral and often legal
responsibility to protect workers
- As a result of the hazard and a lack of attention
given to health and safety, work-related accident
and diseases are common in all parts of the
world
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 Scope of occ. H

The scope of industrial hygiene is three-fold.

1. Recognition and anticipation of workers health
problems in an industrial atmosphere

2. Evaluation of the recognized problem which

encompasses mainly data collection,
analysis, interpretation, and
recommendations
3. Development of corrective actions to
eliminate or limit the problem
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 Scope of occ. H

Recognition is situational analysis/hazard analysis

Recognition through:
- available data review (inventory sheet, process
flow sheet review, health records review, material
safety review, data sheets, and literature review)
- walk through inspections
- Interviewing the workers and discussions
- simple direct preliminary instrumentation
• This effort defines preliminary the type of
health problems that may exist among
workers
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 Classification of occupational hazards

1. Chemical hazard: particulates (dust), gases,

solvents, acids, heavy metal poisoning (lead,
cadmium), long list of toxic substances such as
pesticides
Port of entry:
- inhalation,

- absorption through direct contact with skin or

- ingestion

The most important of these is inhalation due to the

speed with which toxic substances are absorbed and

enter the blood stream
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 Hazards . . .

2. Physical hazard: noise, extreme To, radiation

(Ionization & non-ionization)
3. Biological hazard: Mos, insects, and rodents
4. Ergonomic hazards: poor workplace and
equipment design
5. Mechanical hazards: vibrating and rotating
tools, repetitive movement of the hands, tools
6. Psychosocial hazards: within the work
environment itself, emotional stress may arise from
a variety of psychosocial factors, which the worker
finds unsatisfactory, frustrating or demoralizing
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 Hazards . . .

Examples:
- Workers may be working in shifts that will expose

them to unusual hours. They may upset their

family’s life as a result of their work conditions

- Workers may be working with a person who is

paid more but who is incapable of working

- Financial incentives are too low, Work over load,

work under load, poor job management, career
development, and lack of job security, etc.

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 Occupational diseases
A. Respiratory tract diseases

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 Occupational diseases . . .

• Pneumoconiosis
- Silicosis: due to free silica (SiO2 )

- Asbestosis: due to silicates

- Coal workers’

pneumoconiosis/anthracosilcosis/black lung:
due to coal dust exposure

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 Occupational diseases . . .

B. Musculoskeletal disease
Tendonitis, Neck tension syndrome, Back pain
C. Skin disease
Dermatitis, Frostbite , Hypothermia, Skin cancer
D. Eye diseases
E. Disease of the Nervous system
- Occupational stress
F. Reproductive disorders
H. Heamatological disorders: (Hemolysis caused
by AsH3), Leukemia (caused by benzene)
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 Occupational disease control methods
Objective:
- is to ensure that employees' exposure to harmful
chemicals, stresses and physical agents doesn’t
result in occupational illness
 The types of industrial hygiene control measures to be
instituted depend on the nature of the harmful substance
or agent and its routes of entry into the body

 To implement control measures requires an understanding

of the toxicology of a broad rage of potential hazards as
well as an understanding of process technologies and work
practices

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 Occupational disease control methods

1. Engineering Controls
- Engineering controls are to be used as the first line of

defence against work place hazards when ever feasible

☂ The best time to introduce engineering controls is
when the facility is in the design phase i.e.
occupational health hazards can best be minimized by
work place design

It includes: Elimination, substitution, isolation and

ventilation

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 Control methods . . .

a) Substitution
Changing the material:
- Substitution of non-toxic or less toxic materials
for highly toxic ones is often effective method of
control
E.g1. replacement of white lead in paint pigments by zinc,
barium, or titanium oxides
E.g2. Detergent plus water cleaning solutions instead of
organic solvents

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 Control methods . . .

Change the process:

-A process can be modified to reduce the
dispersion of dust or fume and thus markedly
reduce the hazard

E.g. Brush-painting or dipping instead of spray

painting can minimize the concentration of air
borne contaminants

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 Control methods . . .

b) Isolation
Enclosing the process or equipment is a desirable

method of control, because the enclosure prevents

or minimizes the escape of contaminants into the
workroom atmosphere
Enclosures should be one of the first control

measures attempted, after substitution has been

considered
Isolation can also be provided by appropriate use

of distance and time, for example, with respect to

radiation and noise exposure.
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 Control methods . . .

C) Ventilation
-Ventilation is a method of controlling the work

environment by strategically supplying (adding) or

exhausting (removing) air

Ventilation is used to dilute the concentration of

-

contaminants to acceptable levels, to remove

contaminants at their source

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 Control methods . . .

i. General Ventilation/ Dilution ventilation

-General ventilation systems supply and exhaust large

volumes of air from workspaces

-They are used for temperature and humidity control or

to dilute the concentration of an air contaminant below

hazardous levels
-This system uses natural convection through open

doors or windows, roof ventilators, and chimneys or air

movement produced by mechanical fans or blowers

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 Control methods . . .

Disadvantage: employee exposures can be very

difficult to control near the source of the
contaminant where sufficient dilution has not yet
occurred

ii. Local exhaust ventilation

-Local exhaust systems capture or contain
contaminants at their source
-Local exhaust systems remove air contaminants

rather than just dilute them, but not always 100%

effective
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 Control methods . . .

- This method should be used when the

contaminant can’t be controlled by substitution,
changing the process, isolation (enclosure)

- It is most often the proper method to control

exposure to toxic contaminants (highly toxic
dust and fumes)

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 Control methods . . .

2. Administrative control
- Work period reduction

- Job rotation

- Appropriate work practices e.g. wet methods

- Proper maintenance

- Administrative controls do not eliminate

exposure

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 Control methods . . .

3. Personal protective equipments (PPE)

- PPE is the least effective method of controlling

occupational hazards and should be used only

when other methods can’t control hazards
sufficiently

PPE includes:
• Respiratory organ protective equipment
(Respirator)
• Protective clothing (Gloves, Boots, Gown)
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 Control methods . . .

• Eye and face protection (Chemical goggles, Eye

glasses, masks)

• Hearing protection (Ear plugs ,Ear muffs)

• Head protection (Helmet)

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Quiz two

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