Occupational Hygiene Management Guide

Shirley K. Jones

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000157703
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Industrial Engineering
• Index: Technology & Engineering

Applicable worldwide, this valuable guide will enable you to develop, implement, and maintain the effective occupational health programs for your company needs. Authored by four experts responsible for environment, health, and safety at different General Electric businesses, it can help you avoid costly business as well as personal liabilities resulting from occupational health problems. This book describes the hazard recognition and control procedures essential to employee preventive health programs. Details the auditing and measurements process, and outlines the procedures necessary to monitor and ensure total effectiveness of your program, both immediate and long-term. A prime feature is the 1989-1990 TLVs (Threshold Limit Values) and BEIs (Biological Exposure Indices) published with permission of the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists.

1

Program Overview

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Audit programs and other onsite management and professional reviews point out that occupational hygiene programs in business operations are not always adequate in quality and content. To modify this situation, managers and engineering professionals must be an integral part of a successful program and must become familiar with the elements that comprise it. This book is designed to assist all levels of management in more fully understanding typical program elements and their personal roles in the design, implementation, and administration of such programs.

Occupational illnesses can be caused by chemical agents, such as dusts, fumes, mists, vapors, and gases, or by physical agents, such as noise, temperature extremes, and radiation. Employees may suffer adverse health effects when overexposed to these agents, i.e., when subjected to an exposure in excess of recognized safe limits. Effects may develop after repeated exposures over long periods of time (chronic) or through a single exposure event (acute). These illnesses or diseases can cause temporary or permanent disability, impact the quality of life, or result in a shortened life span. Effective occupational hygiene programs minimize such risks.

Managers and supervisors play a key role in preventing occupational illnesses. Management knowledge of products, processes, workplace hazards, and exposure potentials is essential to the development of effective programs and controls designed to minimize employee exposures. Furthermore, all levels of management should be assigned responsibilities for protecting the health and safety of employees according to company policy, which should be holistic in design and should include guidelines on health, safety, and environmental protection. This is because occupational hygiene can affect and be affected by other environmental and workplace issues and concerns. (A Sample Company Policy is included in this section.)

While the primary objective of a comprehensive occupational health program is to ensure the continued protection of the health of all employees, such programs do result in other tan...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Contents
• Section 1: Program Overview
• Section 2: Program Guidelines and Recommended Practices
• Section 3: Auditing and Measurement
• Appendices