occupational hygiene occupational hygiene occupational hygiene (united states: industrial hygiene (ih)) is the anticipation, recognition, evaluation, control, and confirmation (arecc) of protection from risks associated with exposures to hazards in, or arising from, the workplace that may result in injury, illness, impairment, or affect the well-being of workers and members of the community. these hazards or stressors are typically divided into the categories biological, chemical, physical, ergonomic and psychosocial. 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. 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 (see microbiology tropical medicine infection). environmental and occupational hygienists are considered experts in exposure science and exposure risk management. depending on an individual's type of job, a hygienist will apply their exposure science expertise for the protection of workers, consumers and/or communities. illustration of exposure risk assessment and management related to anticipation, recognition, evaluation, control, and confirmation occupational hazards physical chemical biological psychosocial hierarchy of hazard controls elimination substitution engineering controls administrative controls personal protective equipment prevention through design occupational hygiene occupational exposure limit exposure assessment workplace exposure monitoring study occupational toxicology occupational epidemiology workplace health surveillance the profession of occupational hygienist the british occupational hygiene society (bohs) defines that "occupational hygiene is about the prevention of ill-health from work, through recognizing, evaluating and controlling the risks". the international occupational hygiene association (ioha) refers to occupational hygiene as 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. the term "occupational hygiene" (used in the uk and commonwealth countries as well as much of europe) is synonymous with industrial hygiene (used in the us, latin america, and other countries that received initial technical support or training from us sources). the term "industrial hygiene" traditionally stems from industries with construction, mining or manufacturing, and "occupational hygiene" refers to all types of industry such as those listed for "industrial hygiene" as well as financial and support services industries and refers to "work", "workplace" and "place of work" in general. environmental hygiene addresses similar issues to occupational hygiene but is likely to be about broad industry or broad issues affecting the local community, broader society, region or country. the profession of occupational hygiene uses strict and rigorous scientific methodology and often requires professional judgment based on experience and education in determining the potential for hazardous exposure risks in workplace and environmental studies. these aspects of occupational hygiene can often be referred to as the "art" of occupational hygiene and is used in a similar sense to the "art" of medicine. in fact "occupational hygiene" is both an aspect of preventive medicine and in particular occupational medicine, in that its goal is to prevent industrial disease, using the science of risk management, exposure assessment and industrial safety. ultimately professionals seek to implement "safe" systems, procedures or methods to be applied in the workplace or to the environment. prevention of exposure to long working hours has been identified as a focus for occupational hygiene when a landmark united nations study estimated that this occupational hazard causes an estimated 745,000 occupational fatalities per year worldwide, the largest burden of disease attributed to any single occupational hazard. industrial hygiene refers to the science of anticipating, recognizing, evaluating, and controlling workplaces to prevent illness or injuries to the workers (geigle safety group, inc., 2020). industrial hygienists use various environmental monitoring and analytical methods to establish how workers are exposed. in turn, they employ techniques such as engineering and work practice controls to control any potential health hazards. anticipation involves identifying potential hazards in the workplace before they are introduced. the uncertainty of health hazards ranges from reasonable expectations to mere speculations. however, it implies that the industrial hygienist must understand the nature of changes in the processes, products, environments, and workforces of the workplaces and how they can affect workers' well-being. recognition of engineering, work practice, and administrative controls are the primary means of reducing the workers` exposure to occupational hazards. timely recognition of hazards minimizes the workers' exposure to the hazards by removing or reducing the hazard's source or isolating the workers from the hazards. evaluation of a worksite is a significant step that helps the industrial hygienists establish jobs and worksites that are a potential source of problems. during the evaluation, the industrial hygienist measures and identifies the problem tasks, exposures, and tasks. the most effective worksites assessment includes all the jobs, work activities, and operations. the industrial hygienists inspect research and evaluations of how given physical or chemical hazards affect the workers' health. if the workplace contains a health hazard, the industrial hygienist recommends appropriate corrective actions. control measures include removing toxic chemicals and replacing harmful toxic materials with less hazardous ones. it also involves confining work operations or enclosing work processes and installing general and local ventilation systems. controls change how the task is performed. some of the basic work practice controls include: following the laid procedures to reduce exposures while at the workplace, inspecting and maintaining processes regularly, and implementing reasonable workplace procedures. industrial hygiene in the united states started taking shape in the early 20th century. there before, many workers risked their lives daily to work in industrial settings such as manufacturing, mills, constructions, and mines. currently, the statistics on work safety are usually measured by the number of injuries and deaths yearly. before the 20th century, these kinds of statistics were hard to come by because it appeared no one cared enough to make tracking of the job injuries and deaths a priority. the industrial hygiene profession gained respectability back in 1700 when bernardino ramazzini published a comprehensive book on industrial medicine. the book was written in italian and was known as de morbis artificum diatriba, meaning “the diseases of workmen” (geigle safety group, inc., 2020). the book detailed the accurate description of the occupational diseases that most of his time workers suffered from. ramazzini was critical to the industrial hygiene profession's future because he asserted that occupational diseases should be studied in the workplace environment and not in hospital wards. industrial hygiene received another boost in the early 20th century when dr. alice hamilton led an effort to improve industrial hygiene. she began by observing industrial conditions first and then startled mine owners, factory managers, and other state officials with evidence that there was a correlation between workers` illnesses and their exposure to chemical toxins. she presented a definitive proposals for eliminating unhealthful working conditions. as a result, the us federal government also began investigating health conditions in the industry. in 1911, the states passed the first workers` compensation laws. the social role of occupational hygiene occupational hygienists have been involved historically with changing the perception of society about the nature and extent of hazards and preventing exposures in the workplace and communities. many occupational hygienists work day-to-day with industrial situations that require control or improvement to the workplace situation. however larger social issues affecting whole industries have occurred in the past e.g. since 1900, asbestos exposures that have affected the lives of tens of thousands of people. occupational hygienists have become more engaged in understanding and managing exposure risks to consumers from products with regulations such as reach (registration, evaluation, authorisation and restriction of chemicals) enacted in 2006. more recent issues affecting broader society are, for example in 1976, legionnaires' disease or legionellosis. more recently again in the 1990s, radon, and in the 2000s, the effects of mold from indoor air quality situations in the home and at work. in the later part of the 2000s, concern has been raised about the health effects of nanoparticles. many of these issues have required the coordination over a number of years of a number of medical and paraprofessionals in detecting and then characterizing the nature of the issue, both in terms of the hazard and in terms of the risk to the workplace and ultimately to society. this has involved occupational hygienists in research, collection of data and to develop suitable and satisfactory control methodologies. general activities the occupational hygienist may be involved with the assessment and control of physical, chemical, biological or environmental hazards in the workplace or community that could cause injury or disease. physical hazards may include noise, temperature extremes, illumination extremes, ionizing or non-ionizing radiation, and ergonomics. chemical hazards related to dangerous goods or hazardous substances are frequently investigated by occupational hygienists. other related areas including indoor air quality (iaq) and safety may also receive the attention of the occupational hygienist. biological hazards may stem from the potential for legionella exposure at work or the investigation of biological injury or effects at work, such as dermatitis may be investigated. as part of the investigation process, the occupational hygienist may be called upon to communicate effectively regarding the nature of the hazard, the potential for risk, and the appropriate methods of control. appropriate controls are selected from the hierarchy of control: by elimination, substitution, engineering, administration and personal protective equipment (ppe) to control the hazard or eliminate the risk. such controls may involve recommendations as simple as appropriate ppe such as a 'basic' particulate dust mask to occasionally designing dust extraction ventilation systems, work places or management systems to manage people and programs for the preservation of health and well-being of those who enter a workplace. examples of occupational hygiene include: disposable foam earplugs: out of the ear with coins for scale (top) and inserted into the wearer's ear (bottom). analysis of physical hazards such as noise, which may require the use hearing protection earplugs and/or earmuffs to prevent hearing loss. developing plans and procedures to protect against infectious disease exposure in the event of a flu pandemic. monitoring the air for hazardous contaminants which may potentially lead to worker illness or death. 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 hierarchy of occupational exposure limits (oels) basic characterization, hazard identification and walk-through surveys the first step in understanding health risks related to exposures requires the collection of "basic characterization" information from available sources. a traditional method applied by occupational hygienists to initially survey a workplace or environment is used to determine both the types and possible exposures from hazards (e.g. noise, chemicals, radiation). the walk-through survey can be targeted or limited to particular hazards such as silica dust, or noise, to focus attention on control of all hazards to workers. a full walk-through survey is frequently used to provide information on establishing a framework for future investigations, prioritizing hazards, determining the requirements for measurement and establishing some immediate control of potential exposures. the health hazard evaluation program from the national institute for occupational safety and health is an example of an industrial