Patty's Industrial Hygiene, Hazard Recognition. Группа авторов

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СКАЧАТЬ An initiative identified as Responsible Care. This initiative required companies to pledge to manage their business according to listed principles (50). These principles pledged certain practices in controlling sources of exposures to employees and generally endorsed good industrial hygiene practices to augment both community and worker health. There are over 40 country chemical industry associations with Responsible Care programs in place.

In addition, the 1980s saw a large increase in the number of industrial hygiene samples collected, and it has been noted (by Cherrie below) that the majority of industrial hygiene samples collected historically likely occurred in the 1980s. For example, if you search the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) site for Health Hazard Evaluations (HHE) in the period of 1980 to 1989, you will see that 1429 HHE were conducted versus 780 in the next ten year (51). This information was critical to developing and improving the science of dose–response for stressors found in the workplace and the environment. Indeed, once this exposure assessment information was systematically collected, many important risk assessment efforts were undertaken by government agencies in the 1980s, such as for benzene and asbestos (52). The science of exposure assessment continued to improve throughout and after the 1980s. Increasingly industrial hygienists assisted in the development of exposure estimates to improve the power of epidemiology surveys. As noted by Cherrie, since that time “there have been considerable developments in the science of human exposure assessment and in particular in the development of theoretical models to describe exposure to hazardous substances” that have caused or at least contributed to the decline in the use of personal sampling techniques beginning in the 1990s (41). Current developments in sensor technologies may well reverse this previous trend with a myriad of increasing personal measurements in the future.

      While continuing to still be a relatively small profession, the 1980s again saw the doubling of the number of CIHs from 1750 at the end of the 1970s to 4581 by the end of the 1980s.

      2.8 1990s: Growth of Industrial Hygiene Management

      In the 1990s, sophisticated industrial employers began to see industrial hygiene programs as an investment to keep their workers more productive. The purpose of an industrial hygiene program was and is to ensure a healthful workplace for employees. An effective program should include all the functions needed to anticipate, recognize, evaluate, and control health hazards to workers associated with production, office, and other work, as well as any related risk for family members or the community. This requires a comprehensive program designed around the nature of the operations, documented to preserve a sound retrospective record, and executed in a professional manner. An integrated program is capable of responding to the need for the establishment of appropriate exposure controls, both for current needs and for those that may result from technological advances and associated process changes.

      The almost universal availability of high‐capacity and powerful desktop computers in the 1990s greatly facilitated the management of industrial hygiene programs. An abundance of industrial hygiene‐related software for record keeping, technical reference (e.g. regulations and safety data sheets [SDSs]), sampling data analysis, exhaust ventilation design, and other such industrial hygiene functions became available from commercial sources, or through professional journals, professional associations, and individual industrial hygienists. The AIHA began a Computer Applications Committee, whose mission it is to provide a forum for advancing the use of computer applications by occupational and environmental health professionals.

      The science and profession of industrial hygiene became generally recognized as having an important role in industry. It was recognized generally in the 1990s that the industrial hygienist at the corporate or equivalent level should report to top management. His/her responsibility involves appropriate input whenever product, technological, operational, or process changes, or other corporate considerations may have an influence on the nature and extent of associated health hazards. When new plants or processes are under consideration, the corporate industrial hygienist should ensure that adequate controls are incorporated at the design stage. In the 1990s, the profession almost doubled again with the number of CIHs rising from 4581 at the end of the 1980s to 7966 by the end of the 1990s.

      Elsewhere in 1995, The International Occupational Hygiene Association (IOHA) hosted an international workshop on certification in Blackpool, the United Kingdom. The goals of the workshop were to further the development and application of occupational hygiene and to enhance movement of occupational hygiene professionals across national borders. To prepare for the workshop, IOHA published an inventory of existing certification/licensing schemes for occupational hygienists in Canada, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States (53).

      2.9 The Twenty‐First Century

      American labor changed dramatically during the twentieth century. In the early 1900s, approximately 38% of the labor force was made up of people working on farms. However, by the end of the century, this figure declined to less than 3%. During this time, the service industry was the growth sector, jumping from 31% of the workforce in 1900 to 78% in 1999 (54).

      This trend has continued into the twenty‐first century. The workforce which used to be in farming/manufacturing is now mainly in the service industry. Education has also evolved from in‐class learning using textbooks to a diverse learning environment that uses practical training and distance learning tools.

Jobs in the twenty‐first century can be divided into three categories (shown in Figure 1), i.e. service, manufacturing, and education. Based on a report by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2001, the top 10 fastest‐growing industries from 2000 to 2010 included the computer and data processing sector which was projected to increase by 86%, while overall employment was projected to grow by only 15% (55). In addition to the computer and data processing sector, the fastest‐growing industries include residential care with a projected 64% increase, health services with a projected 57% increase, cable and pay television services with a 51% increase, personnel supply services with a 49% increase, warehousing and storage with a 45% increase, water and sanitation with a 45% increase, miscellaneous business services with a 44% increase, miscellaneous equipment rental and leasing with a 42% increase, and management and public relations with a 42% increase (55). These top 10 projected fastest‐growing industries all relate to the service industry.

FIGURE 1 Industrial hygienists in the workforce.

      The changes within industries and their operating businesses in the early twenty‐first century have resulted in a shift in the skills required for industrial hygienists, often called occupational hygienists. Examples of these changes in the three categories are further discussed.

       2.9.1 Manufacturing

      Many manufacturers that produce goods for daily life have moved overseas. The manufacturing industry in the United States has since evolved to collaborate with more international contractors and personally owned businesses, creating jobs to support the strong relationship between oversea manufacturers and the US market. The fastest‐growing markets include advanced materials; advanced robotics; 3D printing; biotechnology; artificial intelligence; digital design, simulation, and integration; and high‐performance computing. In addition, the Internet of Things is revolutionizing many aspects of manufacturing operations including real‐time production monitoring and improving the accuracy of key metrics including overall equipment effectiveness, production yield rates, and production efficiency. Future manufacturing is predicted to tilt back toward advanced manufacturing nations with robust innovation ecosystems as opposed to the cost‐driven nations of the past.

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