What is Occupational Hygiene?

 

Occupational hygiene utilises science and engineering to measure the extent of exposure to workplace hazards, and to design appropriate control strategies to prevent ill health caused by these hazards. Hazards encountered at the workplace can be categorised as follows:

 

• Chemical hazards such as welding fumes, lead, asbestos, PCBs and dusts

• Biological hazards such as blood, bacteria, viruses, spores and fungi

• Physical hazards such as noise, vibration, radiation and thermal stress

• Ergonomic issues such as poor manual handling processes, posture and body positioning, workplace design and repetitive stress injuries

• Psychosocial issues such as stress, bullying and harassment and fatigue.

 

An occupational hygienist must anticipate, identify, assess, control and communicate workplace and environmental hazards that can result in injury or illness in order to protect workers from the hazardous chemicals and other hazardous agents they have to work with.

 

Occupational Hygiene Services

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At HazMax Consulting we offer the following occupational hygiene services:

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• Airborne contaminant exposure assessments for dusts, gases, vapours, fumes

• Workplace noise exposure assessments.