INDUSTRIAL HYGIENE

MECHANICAL DYNAMICS INC. C2016

In all safety management paradigms, accident prevention is the most basic.

Absence of accident means that safety management is effective and vice versa.
Therefore, understanding how accidents occur is fundamental to establishing
interventions to prevent their occurrence. It may seem simple, yet the reality is that
accidents are complex events, seldom the results of a single failure, and that
complexity has made to understand how accidents occur.
Accidents occur every day, one way or another, will impact virtually everyone.
Accidents are unavoidable as a whole; the chance of one occurring will virtually
always be present. Second, the chance of an accident occurring is a variable that
can be changed. While it is impossible to prevent all accidents, it is possible to
decrease their rate of occurrence. Understanding the cause of a phenomenon such
as this is the key to decreasing its occurrences, as often knowing the cause is the
only way to formulate effective prevention strategies.
When accident occurs in an industrial plant an industrial worker sustains a disabling
injury, and losses consisting of direct and indirect costs in terms of pesos and
centavos are experience by the plant.
The direct cost, consisting of payments made to the injured as compensation and
medical expenses, and the indirect costs amount to several times the compensation
and medical expenses and they largely consist of losses due to interruption to the
normal operation, decrease of efficiency, replacing the injured with another worker,
training expenses for the new worker, investigating the workers accidents, etc.
Another indirect cost item is the matter of personal morals being affected adversely
by frequent accidents. That, industries find the economic phases a challenging
reason for accident prevention. It has been found by researchers that the ratio of
indirect cost is four (4) times that of the direct cost. In other words, it is more costly
for the indirect cost than for the direct cost, hence this ratio of 4 to 1 proves to be
more stimulus for the industrial owner to adapt safety measures for their industries.

The factors involved in the indirect or hidden costs of accidents are:

1. Cost of lost time in injured employee.
2. Cost of time lost by other employee who stopped their work
a. Out of curiosity
b. Out of sympathy
c. To assist injured employee
d. For other persons
3. Cost of time lost by foreman, supervisors and other executives as follows :

a. Assisting injured employee

b. Investigating the cause of the accident.
c. Arranging for the injured employee's production to be continued by
some other employees.
d. Selecting, training and breaking in a new employee to replace the
injured one.
e. Preparing the state accident reports or attending hearing before the
court.
4. Cost of time spent on the case by first aid, attendants, and hospital
departments staff when not paid for by the insurance carrier.
5. Cost due to injuries to the machines, tools or other property or to the spoilage
of the materials.
6. Incidental cost due to interference with production. Failure to fill orders on
time loss of bonuses.
7. Cost of employer under employee welfare and benefit system.
8. Cost of employer in continuing the wages of the injured employee after his
return. The services of the employee who is not fully recovered for a time be
worth only about half of their normal value.
9. Cost due to the loss of profit on the injured employee's productivity and on
idle machines.
10.Cost of subsequent injuries that occurs in consequences of the excitement of
weakens morale due to the original accident.
11.Overhead cost per injured employees such as expenses of lights, rent or
other such as items while injured employee is non-producer.
According to Herbert William Heinrich, an American industrial safety pioneer from
1930s, accidents are caused by unsafe acts, unsafe conditions and unpreventable
causes. Unsafe acts, which is statistically determined as 88% cause of accidents are
activities conducted in a manner that will threaten the health and/or safety of
workers. These unsafe acts are violation of safety procedures like:

Operating equipment without qualification or authorization

Lack of/or improper use of PPE
Operation equipment at unsafe speeds
Failure to warn
Bypass or removal of safety devices
Using defective equipment

10% of the causes of accidents are unsafe conditions. These are conditions in the
work place that is likely to cause property damage or injury because of unsafe
environment, unsafe materials or unsafe equipment. These include:

Defective tools, equipment or supplies

Inadequate supports or guards
Congestion in the workplace
Inadequate warning systems
Fire and explosion hazards
Poor housekeeping
Hazardous atmospheric conditions

The remaining 2% are unpreventable causes. These are natural calamities or acts of

Identif Evalua
Control SAFE!
y te
nature that man cannot control.
Industrial Hygiene is the science and art devoted to identification, evaluation, and
control of environmental factors and stresses arising in or from the workplace,
which may cause sickness, impaired health and well-being, or significant discomfort
among workers or among citizens of the community.

IDENTIFY
Identification of hazard is done through inspection or through investigation.
Inspection is done before an accident might occur. It involves measurements, tests,
and gauges applied to certain characteristics in regard to an object or activity.
Investigation, on the other hand will be done after an accident occurs. It is done to
observe or inquire into in detail and systematically examining the site of accident.
Identification of hazard is not just limited work for safety department members;
every worker is responsible to identify hazards in their work areas because they are
more aware about it, since they are already there. Once identification is done, the
next procedure will be made, evaluation.
EVALUATION

Hazards are evaluated based on risk. The evaluators look on the potential
probability and severity of loss to people, equipment, materials and environment.
Evaluations are done by the safety committee, and the next step will follow, control.
CONTROL
Once evaluation is done, the safety committee will decide what type of control will
apply to those hazards. There are three different types of control, engineering
control, administrative control and PPE.

PLANT INSPECTION

Identif
y

Continuous Activity. This type

of inspection is a continuing
plant
activity
to
discover
condition that, if uncorrected,
may lead to accidents and
injuries, which are essential to
first rate safety performance.
These inspection are performed by the
plants safety committee member or other trained safety personnel among
supervisors and workers. They have advantages over outside or government safety
inspectors in that they have more intimate knowledge of their machine and
operations. However, the outside or government safety inspector has more prestige
unbiased viewpoint, and considerably more varied experiences.
Preventive Maintenance. This type is a schedule safety inspection carried on by
the plants maintenance personnel or plant engineer on by the plants maintenance
personnel or plant engineer to prevent breakdowns and lengthen the life of
machines and equipment.

Special Inspection. This type of inspection is usually in the form of investigations

and made for special information purposes. They are usually made the request of
management, labor etc.

One Call. This type of inspection is done accordance to a regularly scheduled visit
at definite periods intervals usually, yearly.
As this functions, usually the
government part of the safety inspection. Let us try to discuss it further.
What to look for during inspection?
Housekeeping
Other personal protective
equipment
Material Handling Methods
Eye Protection
Adequate Aisle Space
Dust, Fumes, Gases Vapor
Guarding of Transmission Machinery Delivery of suppliers
Point-of-Operation Guard
Any other explosive hazards as
volatiles,
Maintenance
gases, chemicals,
Hand tools
Other dangerous Substances
Ladders, Portable Steps, Horses, etc. Oiling methods
Hard Trucks, Power Trucks,
Inspection of chains, cables,
slings
& Wheelbarrow, Buggies, etc.
And other lighting tackles
Floors, Platform, Stairs, Railways.
Access to overload equipment
Cranes, Hoist, Derricks, Plant Railways Exit
Lighting
Safety Signs
Electrical equipment particularly

Any
other
conditions
suggested by the
extension cords
Accident Records.
STANDARD INSPECTION PROCEDURE
The inspection procedure shall be worked out in such an order so as not to leave
any condition uncovered or any hazards uncorrected. There is not though any
standard procedure that can be suggested but the inspection staff may form tier
own detailed inspection procedure. Again from the Check List given above detailed
inspection can be formed as follows:

UNDER HOUSEKEEPING
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Loose material and objects under foot

Loose material and object overhead
Piling
Projecting nails
Disposal of scrap and waste
Grease, water or oil spillage

7. Tool housekeeping
8. Marked aisle lines
9. Window cleanliness
10.Painting
11.General Cleanliness
12.Orderliness
13.Fire Hazard
14.Etc.

Most inspection units have very limited personnel. The number of plants for exceed
the work load of each inspector so that in a "one call type of inspection there must
be some system for inspection.
The following are advantages of a uniform or standard inspection procedures:
Systematic Training. New inspector are easier to train or to instruct if
forethought dictates the system and materials are presented logically.
Uniform Information. Each inspector obtains the same information at
different locations or the same information at different locations or same
information can be checked at one place at different visits.
Better Public Relation. Too many visit for the same information irritates the
management. Systematic inspection are smooth, fast and informative.
Service Increase. More visit can be made per inspector at the same length
of time because time is now wasted on unessential. The inspector knows that
what he wants are gets in rapidly.

ENGINEERING CONTROL
Engineering control is used to
control the hazard at its source.
This might be the best strategy
because unlike other controls that
generally focus on the employee
exposed to the hazard. This
control is that, as much as possible, the work environment and the job itself
should be designed to eliminate or hazards or to reduce exposure to hazards. If
feasible, design the facility, equipment, or process to remove the hazard or
substitute something that is not hazardous. If removal is not feasible, enclose the
hazard to prevent exposure in normal operations. And when complete enclosure
is not feasible, establish barriers or local ventilation to reduce exposure to the
hazard in normal operations.

Control

Elimination. What is the best way to get rid of someone on Facebook? Remove
him/her as your friend. Just like the elimination control, it is the process of removing
the hazard from the workplace. It is the most effective way to control a risk because
the hazard is no longer present. It is the preferred way to control a hazard and
should be used whenever possible.
Substitution. Substitution is done usually in chemical plants. It occurs when a new
chemical or substance that is less hazardous is used instead of another chemical. It
is sometimes grouped with elimination because, in effect, you are removing the first
substance or hazard from the workplace. The goal, obviously, is to choose a new
chemical that is less hazardous than the original.
Process Control. It involves changing the way a job activity or process is done to
reduce the risk. Monitoring should be done before and as well as after the change is
implemented to make sure the changes did result in lower exposures.
Enclosure & Isolation. Usually, paint jobs are controlled by this type to reduce the
risk of spreading the chemical inhalation to other workers nearby. An enclosure
keeps a selected hazard physically away from the worker. Enclosed equipment, for
example, is tightly sealed and it is typically only opened for cleaning or
maintenance. The enclosure itself must be well maintained to prevent leaks.
While isolation places the hazardous process geographically away from the
majority of the workers. Common isolation techniques are to create a contaminantfree booth either around the equipment or around the employee workstations.
Ventilation. It is a method of control that removes unwanted air in the workplace,
as well as balancing the temperature of that area. Local exhaust ventilation is very
adaptable to almost all chemicals and operations. It removes the contaminant at
the source so it cannot disperse into the work space and it generally uses lower
exhaust rates than general ventilation (general ventilation usually exchanges air in
the entire room).

A local exhaust ventilation system consists of these basic parts:

1. A hood that captures the contaminants generated in the air (at the
source).
2. Ductwork (exhaust stack and/or recirculation duct) that carries the
contaminated air to the air cleaning device, if present or to the fan (away
from the source).
3. A fan which draws the air from the hood into the ducts and removes the
air from the workspace. The fan must overcome all the losses due to
friction, hood entry, and fittings in the system while producing the
intended flow rate.

4. Air cleaning devices may also be present that can remove contaminants
such as dust (particulates), gases and vapors from the air stream before it
is discharged or exhausted into the environment (outside air), depending
on the material(s) being used in the hood.

ADMINISTRATIVE CONTROL
Administrative control is a type of control where you limit the exposure of the
worker to the hazard. This type of control has many limitations because the hazard
itself is not actually removed or reduced. Administrative controls are not generally
favored for most cases because they can be difficult to implement, maintain and are
not a reliable way to reduce exposure. This method includes:

Proper scheduling of breaks

Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)
Medical Examinations
Scheduling maintenance and other high exposure operations for times when
few workers are present (such as evenings, weekends)
Using job-rotation schedules that limit the amount of time an individual
worker is exposed to a substance
Using a work-rest schedule that limits the length of time a worker is exposed
to a hazard

PERSONAL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT (PPE)

PPE usage is considered the last resort. PPE can provide added protection to the
employee, but will not eliminate the hazard. This will be discussed further in this
manual at the next chapters.