Page 30 - Occupational Health & Safety, May 2018

INDUSTRIAL HYGIENE
The Industrial Hygienist’s Guide to Anticipate, Evaluate, and Manage Occupational Health & Safety Risks with Industrial Hygiene Software
Effective industrial hygiene management requires recording and maintaining consistent and complete work site data. Using outdated methods is in itself a serious risk.
BY MA JOELLE LINGAT
26 Occupational Health & Safety | MAY 2018
www.ohsonline.com
Industrial hygienists are veritably occupational health and safety superheroes, standing alert to anticipate, recognize, and prevent risks and con- trolling environmental factors or stressors arising
in or from the workplace to help prevent sickness, im- paired health and well-being, or significant discom- fort among workers or citizens of the community.
The chief goal of an occupational health and safety program in a facility is to prevent occupational injury and illness by anticipating, recognizing, evaluating, and controlling occupational health and safety haz- ards. Industrial hygiene software equips users with the tools and resources needed to help occupational health and safety professionals carry out their job to the best of their abilities—to continue to protect workers and reduce impact to the environment.
Let’s walk through how to identify and evaluate workplace hazards, address and anticipate future threats, and manage your occupational health and safety program efficiently and effectively by estab- lishing a plan with the right industrial hygiene soft- ware tools.
Getting Started
Before diving into the many activities that comprise your industrial hygiene program, it’s important to es- tablish your program expectations and a strategy for
action. Begin by asking yourself the following: What are you trying to accomplish? Set program goals. Who will be affected by your program? Identify your key stakeholders. What regulations you must comply with? Find out what your legal obligations are. Will your program be specific to a certain location? Estab- lish your boundaries.
Our experts identify the following key health and safety expectations:
■ Identify tasks
■ Assess risks
■ Prioritize actions
■ Identify controls
■ Implement controls and train employees
■ Assess performance
■ Investigate issues (including potential)
■ Maintain data and reports
Next, you will need to identify what your potential
hazards are applicable in your case. There are many different stressors that could affect your workers and your community, such as:
■ Air contaminants
Biological exposures
■
■ Chemicals
■ Confined spaces ■ Dusts
■ Ergonomics
■ Fumes
■ Particles that affect respiratory health
■ Radiation exposure
■ Work in extreme heat and cold environments ■ Work in high- or low-pressure environments And that’s just to name a few. Once you under-
stand the stressors that affect your workplace environ- ment, it’s time to develop a plan for action.
Anticipating and Recognizing Hazards
The first step to anticipating and recognizing hazards is to conduct a work site analysis. This will help you and your team determine what activities and areas are susceptible to hazard. You will need to measure and identify exposures and risks, which includes inspect- ing, researching, and analyzing chemicals and physi- cal hazards that put your work site or workers’ health in jeopardy. It’s important to regularly monitor your workplace environment to identify current and po-
Shcherbakov Ilya/Shutterstock.com