Название: Patty's Industrial Hygiene, Hazard Recognition
Автор: Группа авторов
Издательство: John Wiley & Sons Limited
Жанр: Химия
isbn: 9781119816188
isbn:
4.6 Indoor Air Quality
Indoor air quality became more prevalent as more jobs transitioned from being more agricultural to more indoor operations. It is estimated that people spend 90% of their time in indoor environments, such as residential and office buildings, schools, transportation vehicles, and workplaces (68). Indoor air quality can have an impact on health and quality of life through health hazards from chemicals such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs), tobacco smoke, formaldehyde, particulate matter, and ozone. Combustion and burning of biomass products, including wood, leaves, and animal dung used for cooking and heating in many developing countries have led to poor indoor air quality and respiratory effects (69). Indoor air quality problems can be exceedingly complex and it can be a challenge to find acceptable solutions. Attention to “toxic mold” issues in the early 2000s contributed to increased attention to much more substantial nosocomial infection risks in US health care facilities. Occupational hygienists with specialized expertise may be needed to assess and address indoor air quality issues that are related to chemical or biological contamination, and such professionals may additionally need to be familiar with specific mold evaluation and remediation procedures within specific built environments.
4.7 Emergency Preparedness and Response
Emergency responders and community members are at risk for exposures to hazards during response and recovery to natural and man‐made disasters such as oil spills, hurricanes, floods, tsunamis, earthquakes, and wildfires. Occupational hygienists' roles and responsibilities during these events can be very broad. These roles may include, but are not limited to training, selection of proper personal protective equipment, mold remediation supervision, exposure assessment, risk communication, hazardous waste material management, and decontamination.
4.8 Evolution of Occupational and Industrial Hygiene Ethics
As industrial hygiene became a distinct and recognized profession, it became evident that ethical standards would be appropriate to help to guide the practice. In 1991, the ABIH, the AIHA, the Academy of Industrial Hygiene (AIH), and the ACGIH chartered the Code of Ethics Task Force, whose charge was to (i) review and revise the industrial hygiene code of ethics and to supplement it with supporting interpretive guidelines, and (ii) recommend methods to educate members about ethical conduct and to recommend disciplinary procedures and mechanisms for enforcement. A new code was developed and addressed industrial hygienists' responsibilities to the profession, to workers, to employers and clients, and to the public and was nonenforceable (merely aspirational). In addition, this new Code of Professional Ethics for the Practice of Industrial Hygiene comprised six canons with interpretive guidelines was adopted in 1995 (https://synergist.aiha.org/201601-beyond-exposure). The canons of ethical conduct require industrial hygienists to (i) practice their profession by applying scientific principles; (ii) counsel affected parties regarding risks and protective measures; (iii) keep information obtained confidential except under special circumstances; (iv) avoid compromise of professional judgment and conflict of interest situations; (v) practice only in their areas of competence; and (vi) uphold the integrity of the profession.
Beginning in 2006, a Joint Ethics Task Force was established and consisted of representatives of the four original chartering organizations (AIHA, ACGIH, AIH, and ABIH), the Joint Industrial Hygiene Ethics Education Committee (JIHEEC), and an attorney specializing in professional codes of ethics. The primary goal of this task force was to revise and renew the current code of ethics, with a special emphasis placed upon enforcement. The need to sharpen and refine code language and wording was considered a key component of the task force's mission.
Overall, two new codes were approved and presented to the general membership at the June 2007 AIHce in Philadelphia. The membership‐based organizations (AIHA, ACGIH, and AIH) moved away from enforcement and toward education, delegating the role of enforcement to ABIH (70). The general set of guidelines adopted by AIHA, ACGIH, and AIH were intended to help all association members understand their ethical responsibilities. The primary goal of these principles was to educate members, the profession, and the public about acceptable behavior norms in harmony with ABIH requirements, rather than to create a disciplinary system.
Both the ABIH Code of Ethics and the membership‐based organizations' Ethical Principles are meant to serve as a standard for the profession – a guideline that uplifts the profession in a consistent and uniform manner. The overall expectation associated with the new codes is that priority will be given to health and safety interests related to the protection of people. Much like the Hippocratic Oath associated with the medical field, industrial hygienists should strive to “abstain from doing harm” (Primum non nocere) and to hold the people we protect in the highest regard.
Internationally, the IOHA Code of Ethics is intended to cover all occupational/industrial hygiene associations who are members of IOHA. It prescribes (i) the code of ethics for IOHA Board members, and (ii) the general principles expected in the code of ethics of those associations who comprise the members of IOHA (www.ioha.net).
5 Industrial Hygiene Today: Currently Defining Occupational and Industrial Hygiene
Given the developments and evolution of the practice of industrial hygiene over time, it is informative to take the available information on the history and current and emerging practice of industrial hygiene and consider the current definition of the scope of practice for occupational and industrial hygiene.
There are multiple definitions of Occupational and Industrial Hygiene but the most commonly quoted are found below.
The AIHA defines industrial hygiene as the “…science and practice devoted to the anticipation, recognition, evaluation, and control of those environmental factors or stresses, arising in or from the workplace, that may cause sickness, impaired health and well‐being, or significant discomfort among workers or among citizens of the community” (https://www.aiha.org/about-ih/Pages/default.aspx).
The ABIH that administers IH certification programs defines industrial hygiene as: “the science of protecting and enhancing the health and safety of people at work and in their communities” (http://abih.org/content/ih-defined).
FIGURE 3 British Occupational Hygiene Society workplace health triangle.
The IOHA defines occupational hygiene as: “the discipline of anticipating, recognizing, evaluating and controlling health hazards in the working environment with the objective of protecting worker health and well‐being and safeguarding the community at large” (https://ioha.net/faq).
By any definition, however, industrial hygiene is an applied science encompassing the application of knowledge from a multidisciplinary profession, including the sciences and professions of chemistry, engineering, biology, mathematics, СКАЧАТЬ