Occupational Health Hazards may be lurking within your plant, warehouse or even office. These hazards may not present themselves until an employee has a reaction, there is an employee complaint or during an OSHA inspection. Many safety administrators are being asked to evaluate occupational health exposures within their operations to determine if employees are being exposed to hazardous materials and to ensure that these employees are protected from these hazards. These safety administrators may not be aware of the different types of hazards present within their own facility or the best way to asses and control these hazards.
Conducting an Industrial Hygiene/Occupational Health Hazard risk assessment for a manufacturing plant, warehouse and office can help identify, prioritize and control occupational health hazards. Occupational health hazards can be lurking within major industries including plastics, metal fabrication, food, woodworking and printing.
Occupational Health Hazards can stem from mold, solvents, welding fumes, dust and even biological hazards. The occupational health hazard risk assessment provides a step by step method on how to determine if employees are exposed to significant or even moderate occupational health hazards, how to determine where they are present and how to prioritize and evaluate the exposures for further action.
A key concept with the occupational health hazard risk assessment involves a basic understanding of the key elements of Industrial Hygiene (anticipation, recognition, evaluation and control) and the environmental factors and stresses arising from the workplace which may cause sickness, impaired health and inefficiency among workers.
