The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) directly relates to Industrial Hygiene (I H) in various ways. Industrial Hygiene deals with health hazards within the working environments while OSHA lays down the laws and regulations regarding exposure levels. Officers from the two departments do enforcement. Compulsory occupational safety and health regulations are formulated by OSHA and are contained in its Acts. These requirements apply to workers in millions of workplaces in the US. In this case, Industrial Hygienists carry out environmental evaluation for potential health hazards on behalf of OSHA.
The process of putting regulations in place aims at protecting employees and follows extensive analysis of exposure levels to hazards. It also entails determining what controls need enforcement. Industrial Hygienists carry out this exercise since they have the necessary skills and expertise that is applied in recognition, evaluation, and recommendations of the controls. OSHA receives recommended standards that protect workers from toxic chemicals and other harmful physical agents from Industrial Hygienists. They are employed by OSHA to make sure that the well-being of workers is kept at the required levels.
Environmental stressors interfere with optimal productivity of employees. The four environmental stressors are noise, crowding, heat, and air pollution. They have negative effects on both human health and behavior. Noise, which is the unwanted sound, has several characteristics. They include pitch, intensity, and periodicity. The analysis of duration depending on whether it is acute or chronic is another feature along with the degree of personal control over noise (Barker, 1976). Its effect depends on high sound levels.
In population, the mental state of people that arises from the need of space in excess of the available supply is referred to as crowding. It is related to the measures of density within the available space or outside. Changes in the number of people occupying a particular space albeit for a short time can result into crowding. The internal human body temperature is kept at a range of 37 degrees Celsius. An increase of the same has harmful effects to the body organs and may lead to death. A change in environmental temperature affects the body temperature. This can be caused by changes in clothing, humidity, and acclimatization. The hypothalamus gland controls thermoregulatory system that is linked to the psychological effects of heat.
The cost of the effects of air pollution is very high. This is because pollution is a collection of various toxic agents. They include, sulphur oxides, nitrogen oxides, carbon dioxides, and indoor pollutants. Air pollution affects majority of the US citizens. Industrial Hygiene department has considerable apparatus to examine the effects of stress resulting from the four environmental stressors. However, other areas such as the psychological effects of indoor pollutants still need a lot of research.
Fumes are gases or vapor, which have a strong smell usually dangerous to inhale. The gases may be pungent or not. They are products of industrial processes. The examples include carbon dioxide, sulphur IV oxide, Benzene, Butadiene, and Toluene. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) hierarchy controls entail strategies that regulate unsafe work practices. The five hazard control strategies are;
- Elimination
- Substitution
- Engineering controls
- Administration controls
- Personal protective equipment
NIOSH is the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. All the states are required by law to comply with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) as it has its compliance officers in all the states.
Reference:
Barker, M. (1976) Planning for the environmental indices. New York: Plenum Publishers.