Safe and Healthy Workplace Environments using Effective Industrial Hygiene Management Systems By Matt Noth
2 Safe and Healthy Workplace Environments Using Effective Industrial Hygiene Management Systems Introduction Effective workplace industrial hygiene management systems provide the structure to help ensure worker health protection, and integrates workplace safety and health into all aspects of an organization. Health and safety should be a core value and a driving force for operational and organizational sustainability. Identifying ways to incorporate health and safety into existing business processes will allow the protection of employees and assets to become a core value and driving force for operational and organizational sustainability. 1 Industrial hygiene management programs will typically involve monitoring the workplace through identifying hazards, sampling, and assessing workplace hazards, such as air contaminant exposures and repetitive motion, for your workforce. Also, it gives continued review to make sure hazard levels do not exceed acceptable levels by monitoring the hazards after controls have been put into place. IndustRIal HYgIene Industrial Hygiene is generally defined as the art and science dedicated to the Anticipation, Recognition, Evaluation, Communication and Control of environmental stressors in, or arising from, the work place that may result in injury, illness, impairment, or affect the well-being of workers and members of the organization. These stressors are normally divided into the categories Biological, Chemical, Physical, Ergonomic and Psychosocial. 2 Typical industrial hygiene activities and responsibilities include: 3, 4 Investigating and examining the workplace for hazards and potential dangers Investigation of safety complaints and accidents Monitoring of occupational hazards Developing techniques to anticipate and control potentially dangerous situations in the workplace Making recommendations on improving the safety of workers Recordkeeping Training and educating employees about job-related risks
Safe and Healthy Workplace Environments Using Effective Industrial Hygiene Management Systems 3 An effective Industrial Hygiene management programs should be designed to facilitate the anticipation, recognition, evaluation and control of exposure hazards using a systematic and standardized approach based on internationally recognized principles. At a minimum, an effective IH management system should include the following elements: 5 Identify potential health hazards (Anticipate) Walk-Through Surveys / Self-Audits Review new chemicals and processes before use (incl. Management of Change) Regular (ie. Annual, etc.) review of existing and ongoing chemicals and processes Job Hazard Analysis (JHAs) / Job Safety Analysis (JSAs), Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) & (Similar Exposure Groups) SEGs (New and Reviewed) New / Revised Regulations or Company Standards Recognition of health hazards (Recognize) Recognize potential and existing chemical, physical, ergonomics and biological hazards Hazard Assessment (Evaluate) Exposure Assessment (Qualitative / Quantitative) & Risk Rating Sampling / Monitoring Chemical / Product Review Acceptable Risk Levels Control Assessment / Control Assignment Control of health hazards (Implement Control) Recordkeeping Write New Procedures, Standards, etc. Training / Competency Action / Task Management Periodic program review (Review) Data Gathering and Management Reporting and Tracking Audits - Inspections / Management of Change / Management Reviews
4 Safe and Healthy Workplace Environments Using Effective Industrial Hygiene Management Systems Identification and Recognition of Health Hazards How the industrial hygiene program proposes to address these elements needs to be contained in a written plan. In addition, an organized means to document and record the associated information must be put into place. Especially important is a computerized data management system to store, retrieve, treat and review the industrial hygiene exposure data. 6
Safe and Healthy Workplace Environments Using Effective Industrial Hygiene Management Systems 5 Although there are many aspects to industrial hygiene work, the most known and sought after is in determining or estimating potential or actual exposures to hazards. Several methods can be applied in assessing the workplace or environment for exposure to a known or suspected hazard. 7, 3 Walk-through survey with someone knowledgeable of the processes Inspections / Audits, Regular intervals, keep records (recordkeeping) Sampling Surveys / Grab Samples (chemical, inhalable / respirable material, noise, etc.) Equipment / process modification reviews (MoC) MSDS and Chemical Inventory Reviews (Raw materials, by-products, products, etc.) Records of accidents, events and diseases Research industry process and operations / manufacture practices Further discussion on the identification and recognition of occupational hazards can be found in our Effective Hazard Identification and Management whitepaper located at: http:///resources/environment-health-safety.htm. Evaluation of Health Hazards (Exposure Assessment) Exposure assessment is typically defined as the determination or estimation (qualitative or quantitative) of the magnitude, frequency, duration, and route of exposure using a systematic and standardized approach based on internationally recognized principles, such as International Society of Exposure Science (ISES) and International Programme on Chemical Safety (IPCS). As standard, the management of health hazard evaluation should include: Purpose / Reason for Evaluation Similar exposure groups (SEGs) Qualitative and quantitative assessments of exposures Sampling / Measurement Plans, Tracking and monitoring the collection of quantitative samples and analysis of sample results Recordkeeping / Record Management The system should be able to define the activities that need to be carried out to mitigate exposures and to ascertain that scheduled activities are completed by those assigned to the tasks. It should be able to assign and track the accountabilities of individuals within the process.
6 Safe and Healthy Workplace Environments Using Effective Industrial Hygiene Management Systems An Industrial Hygiene management system often begins with the definition and continuing management of similar exposure groups (SEGs.) For each of these groups, the records of the performance and results of qualitative exposure assessments (QEAs) are maintained. The QEA records also contain the details of their respective agents and/ or stressors. Standard exposure assessment workflows are designed to ask the user to first identify the exposure agent/stressor of interest and then gauge the likelihood that an employee would be exposed to it. The exposure monitoring portion of the exposure assessment process is used to verify the qualitative exposure assessment ratings and ensure personnel are adequately protected from potentially hazardous exposures. Monitoring typically consists of both an annual plan as well as unplanned monitoring for non-typical activities that may come up during the year, changes in conditions, or if there is a much higher frequency of those activities. Control of Health Hazards After a hazard s exposure and risk assessments have been performed, if the residual risk is deemed unacceptable, the safety and health assessor will typically propose a treatment (control) plan, including the assignment of any associated control measures. Industrial hygienists recognize that engineering, work practice, and administrative controls are the primary means of reducing employee exposure to occupational hazards. Engineering controls minimize employee exposure by either reducing or removing the hazard at the source or isolating the worker from the hazards. Administrative controls include controlling employees exposure by scheduling production and workers tasks (ie. standard operating procedures), or both, in ways that minimize exposure levels. 3 Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is also another method for controlling risk that is commonly used. And of course, training and employee job task competency is essential for all these types of control elements. Hazard risk mitigation and control is often achieved by using a predetermined hierarchy of controls. The primary aim of risk control is to eliminate the risk and the best way of achieving this is to remove the hazard. If this is not possible the risk must be minimized by using one or more of the other control options from the hierarchy. The risk control measure selected must be the highest possible option within the hierarchy to minimize the risk to the lowest level as reasonably practicable. Existing controls should be reevaluated to determine if the most appropriate control measure is in place. 8 Further discussion on the control of hazards can be found in our Effective Hazard Identification and Management whitepaper located at: http://www.saiglobal.com/ compliance/resources/environment-health-safety.htm.
Safe and Healthy Workplace Environments Using Effective Industrial Hygiene Management Systems 7 Recordkeeping / Records Management Records are evidence of what happened, why and by whom. They underpin accountability and provide an essential means to meet legal / regulatory requirements and other organizational needs. Records are a basic tool of Industrial Hygiene management. Records provide information for effective metrics visibility, resource planning and decision making. They form the foundation for accountability and are often subject to specific regulatory requirements. Records are essential for effective and efficient administration, but if poorly managed they can become a liability, hampering operations, EHS compliance and misallocation of resources. A summary of primary reasons why recordkeeping is an important aspect of industrial hygiene management: 5 Important in all phases of the program Often required by regulation Increase program effectiveness Useful in legal challenges All of these have an impact on the ability of an organization to meet both its internal and external accountability requirements and business needs, such as meeting legal and regulatory requirements. A management system will streamline and optimize the overall management of your workplace safety and health. Due to the high number of records typically generated by an industrial hygiene system and the need for effective management and reporting of this data against employees and standards, such as exposure limits, a management system will streamline and optimize the overall management of your workplace safety and health. Employee Training Routine work can dull alertness and a relaxed attitude can replace the caution that existed when the job was new and interesting. In many jobs the same route is traveled daily over the same roads or the same tasks are repeated with little conscious thought. Without some periodic reawakening to the ever-present hazards, lethargy deepens and the odds of an accident occurring can increase. 5 Workers may not always recognize the importance of safety training or think of it as unnecessary because they ve been doing it for years. But an important benefit of periodic industrial hygiene training is the reminder that a danger can exist and that no one is immune to accidents or unsafe exposures to hazards. Therefore, it is important for workers to understand the purpose of the training session, why it will be useful to them, and what can result from not following safety rules and procedures.
8 Safe and Healthy Workplace Environments Using Effective Industrial Hygiene Management Systems Employees should be able to immediately practice and apply new knowledge and skills. If workers do not understand industrial hygiene training information well enough to use it on the job, the training has not been effective. There should be immediate feedback if workers are doing their job safely and effectively or not. Supervisors should watch employees do their jobs and question them, to identify what they do, or don t know. Many effective industrial hygiene programs have components that are required by regulation, such as the chemical right-to-know or hazard communication standards throughout the world. Also, it is important for the training components of industrial hygiene programs to encourage regular intervals of training and re-training of material that is relevant to each employee s job responsibilities. It is also important that thorough training and job competency records are kept that record dates of trainings, individuals trained, topics covered and the effectiveness of the training (i.e. Course tests or other assessment tools of knowledge understood and retained by each individual.) 5 Periodic Program Review There are many reasons to review any management program, but several important reasons for measuring IH program effectiveness include: 9 Educate management to the elements of an IH program Educate management about the importance of IH in general Demonstrate value of IH program Provide management motivation towards continuous improvement of the program Several things to consider for inclusion in your IH program review: 5 Regular intervals (ie. yearly, semi-annual, etc.) Review the written program as well as the implementation Updates for new regulations, new chemicals, new processes, or any changes Audit components of the program Internal safety OSHA inspection and audits Involve employees, consultants, management Results of self-audits and external assessments are used to identify organization-wide IH program strengths and weaknesses and to target systemic problems for resolution.
Safe and Healthy Workplace Environments Using Effective Industrial Hygiene Management Systems 9 Benefits of IH Management Systems The industrial hygiene program and process can serve your organization by reducing the costs for potential health-related claims and protect the workforce. Indirect advantages of the industrial hygiene process lie in improvement of morale and productivity, as well as contributing to product and workplace quality improvement. 6 Other benefits of effective IH management programs include: 5 Improve health and hygiene Reduce compensation Improve job satisfaction Reduce absenteeism Improve productivity Improve workers attitude towards management Regulatory Compliance Cintellate EHS SAI Global has worked with many leading organizations to assist them with their workplace health and safety programs, including fully implementing comprehensive industrial hygiene programs using the fully integrated Cintellate EHS solution. About Matt noth Matt Noth, Environmental, Health & Safety Sales Specialist with SAI Global, has 15 years experience in engineering and EHS compliance management enabling him to provide guidance to organizations trying to bridge a gap between federal, state, and local regulatory obligations and their organization s business requirements. Matt holds a B.S. Mechanical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and an M.S. Environmental Management from Samford University in Birmingham, AL.
10 Safe and Healthy Workplace Environments Using Effective Industrial Hygiene Management Systems Citations / References 1. www.aiha.org; 2012; http://www.aiha.org/consumerinfo/documents/ih%20program%20 Management.pdf 2. The Australian Institute of Occupational Hygienists (AIOH); 2012; http://www.aioh.org. au/index.aspx 3. Industrial Hygiene: What s an Industrial Hygienist, principles of industrial Hygiene, University of Central Missouri 4. The American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA ); 2012 5. Introduction to Industrial Hygiene, Carter J. Kerk, Industrial Engineering Department, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, 2006 6. The Industrial Hygiene Process: Managing the Occupational Health of Employees to Contribute to the Health of the Steel Industry, Bernard J. Quinn, Association for Iron and Steel Technology (AIST), 2009 7. Wikipedia; 2012; ttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/occupational_medicine; http://www.aiha. org/consumerinfo/pages/whatsanindustrialhygienist.aspx 8. Hazard Management Procedure, V1.1, October 2011; OHSW&IM Services 9. Industrial Hygiene Performance Metric manual, STAR Consultants, 1999
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