Industrial Hygiene Monitoring Services
In certain occupations, depending on the duration and severity of exposure, the work environment can produce significant subjective responses or strain. The energies and agents responsible for these effects are called environmental stressors. An employee is most often exposed to an intricate interplay of many stresses, not to a single environmental stress.
Effective industrial hygiene involves the anticipation /recognition of health hazards arising from work operations and processes, evaluation and measurement of the magnitude of the danger and finally the control of the identified hazard.
OEHS specializes in industrial hygiene consulting. Our services include:
- Surveys
- Tests for toxic and regulated chemicals
- Program design
- Qualitative evaluations
- Air/Bulk Sampling
- Analysis
- Program Development
- Employee training
Contact OEHS to request an Industrial Hygiene Service
What is an industrial hygiene program?
An industrial hygiene program identifies systemic health hazards in the workplace. It evaluates measures to protect workers and the public, identifies potential engineering and management controls, provides written compliance plans, trains workers to requirements of the plan and monitors plan implementation.
OSHA regulations are not limited to industrial settings, but also include ergonomic and indoor air quality considerations for office buildings and commercial businesses, hazard communication for all employees and a multitude of other workplace applications.
The purpose of an industrial hygiene program is to identify hazards in the workplace, evaluate measures to protect workers and the public, identify potential engineering and management controls, provide written compliance plan and monitor plan implementation.
The objective of an Industrial Hygiene program is to control various chemical, physical, biological and ergonomic agents in the occupational environment and to prevent adverse effects on workers and their community. The recognition, evaluation and control of these environmental factors, which may cause sickness, impaired health, or significant discomfort and inefficiency, are of primary importance.
Effective Industrial Hygiene program implementation requires evaluation of the magnitude of environmental stresses (chemical, physical, or biological) arising from the ambient occupational environment. The quantitative measurement of the different types of stress enables the Industrial Hygienist to render an expert opinion as to the general healthfulness of the environment.
What are industrial hygienists?
Industrial Hygienists, also called environmental hygienists, are scientists, engineers committed to protecting the health of people in the workplace and the community. Industrial Hygienists must be competent in a variety of scientific fields, principally chemistry, engineering, physics, toxicology and biology, as well as the fundamentals of occupational medicine.
Industrial hygienists combine science and health in order to upgrade and protect employee wellbeing. They specialize in identifying, evaluating and eliminating or controlling occupational hazards for the benefit of you and your employees. Industrial hygienists must be competent n a variety of scientific fields, principally chemistry, engineering, physics, toxicology, biology, and occupational medicine.
Do I need an Indoor Hygiene Monitoring Audit?
Air monitoring can identify and quantify airborne contaminants to verify and determine if worker protection is needed and to comply with regulatory mandates.
An annual exposure assessment of employee exposure to one or more of the 600 plus OSHA regulated chemicals is the primary method for maintaining federally required records. The higher the level of toxicity the more frequently the exposure should be evaluated.
All chemicals or chemical compounds can be hazardous to your health if the exposure is of sufficient length and concentration. In order to prevent exposure, businesses and manufacturers are expected to comply with specific federal regulations and guidelines, however combing through the maze of regulations to ensure compliance can be difficult for even the most thorough and well trained companies. That’s why OEHS commonly assists businesses and manufacturers in assessing their compliance with requirements and guidelines pertaining to hazardous chemicals and materials and provides step-by-step plans to enable companies to achieve compliance cost effectively and within reasonable time parameters.
The selective monitoring of high-risk workers, i.e., those who are closest to the source of contaminant generation, is highly recommended. If workers closest to the source are not significantly exposed, then all other workers are, presumably, also not significantly exposed and probably do not need to be monitored.
Why do I need an industrial hygienist?
In certain occupations, depending on the duration and severity of exposure, the work environment can produce significant subjective responses or strain. The energies and agents responsible for these effects are called environmental stresses. An employee is most often exposed to an intricate interplay of many stresses, not to a single environmental stress.
The various environmental factors or stresses that can cause sickness, impaired health, or significant discomfort in workers can be classified as chemical, physical, biological and ergonomic.
As an employer, you want to provide a safe, healthy, and productive workplace. Yet, the proliferation of hazardous chemicals and contaminants makes regulation more difficult than ever to interpret.
Occupational health hazards may mean your workplace has conditions that could cause legally compensable illnesses, which could cost your company thousands or millions of dollars. Or the hazardous workplace conditions could impair the health of employees enough to make the lose of time from work or to cause significant discomfort. This can also cost your facility and negatively impact employee satisfaction. Both are undesirable and preventable.
How can an industrial hygienist help my facility?
Occupational Environmental Health Solutions, Inc. has offered industrial hygiene experts with knowledge and skills for the past 25 years in the areas of chemical, physical, biological and ergonomic hazards and the latest information on OSHA laws. OEHS can help you determine where you stand and assist you in achieving your health and safety goals.
A part of your team, an industrial hygienist helps you respond to current problems and identify potential risks. Task may be one-time projects such as a facility audit or ongoing such as providing new regulations training, continuously monitoring occupational quality, or assisting in elimination OSHA related concerns. Whatever the challenge, the OEHS industrial hygiene team can guide your company to a healthy and cost-effective solution.
Choosing the right professionals for your occupational health needs is one of your most important decisions.
OEHS provides industrial hygiene services to companies that want to ensure the safety and well-being of their most important asset – their employees. OEHS can conduct an industrial hygiene assessment at your facility that will proactively assess the exposure of your workforce and confidentially evaluate your company’s level of compliance with OSHA regulations. OEHS’s approach is designed to minimize our client’s liabilities and reduce the likelihood of claims related to workplace injury and illness.
How Do I Choose an Industrial Hygienist?
It is essential that you choose an certified industrial hygienist with the experience and qualifications to handle the unique challenges that your specific situation may present. You should expect a reasoned approach to your situation rather than an alarmist. And you should receive recommendations based on solid evaluation and sound science. Knowing what to look for in choosing a competent Industrial Hygiene consultant requires small investment in time that will pay off significantly in reduced stress and better ensure that you receive professional services of the highest quality. We recommend asking the following questions:
- Do you currently have Professional Liability Insurance?
a. What amount?
b. With which company?
- Which laboratory(s) do you utilize?
a. Is the Industrial Hygiene Lab Certified by the American Industrial Hygiene Association?
b. Is the microbiology laboratory certified as an American Industrial Hygiene Association Environmental Microbiology (EMLAP) Accredited Analytical Laboratory?
- Previous Experience?
a. Number of Projects Completed?
b. Size of Projects?
c. Type of Projects?
- Number of Training Courses?
a. Training Provider?
b. Number of Hours?
- Number of Abatement Protocols Completed?
a. Size of Projects?
b. Are full specifications provided?
- Does the firm have a Certified Industrial Hygienist (CIH) or a licensed Industrial Hygienist?
Why should I choose a Certified Industrial Hygienist (CIH)?
The designation of Certified Industrial Hygienist by the American Board of Industrial Hygiene (ABIH) identifies a person who has received special education, lengthy experience, and proven professional ability in the comprehensive practice of Industrial Hygiene. Industrial Hygiene is the anticipation, recognition, evaluation, and control of environmental factors or stresses, arising in and from the workplace, which may cause sickness, impaired health and well being, or significant discomfort and inefficiency among workers.
For Certification by the ABIH, an individual must meet rigorous standards of education and experience prior to proving, by written examination, competency in the comprehensive practice of Industrial Hygiene.
The need to control exposures from numerous chemicals and hazardous agents and to comply with OSHA regulations has brought about greater demand for Certified Industrial Hygienists. Certified Industrial Hygienists assume professional responsibility for the interpretation and development of conclusions for occupational and environmental investigations and for the design and implementation of control measures.
Certification assures that the individual will possess a high level of professional competence. The Certified Industrial Hygienist is the person to direct an Industrial Hygiene program, to work with other professions and governmental agencies, and to provide the vision and leadership to ensure that occupational hazards will be kept at a minimum in a changing technology and society.
OEHS is led by CIH James Barnes, and we employ only the most-qualified industrial hygienists to deliver top-quality consulting services for our clients.
Recommended: Annual Assessments
Annual exposure assessments of employer exposure to OSHA regulated chemicals is the primary method for maintaining federally required records.
The higher the level of toxicity the more frequently exposure should be evaluated. Two subjective toxicity classifications have been established: High and Low. Those considered high toxicity materials are carcinogens, teratogens, and materials exhibiting serious acute or chronic effects such as pneumoconiosis or organ damage.
Protect your employees from harmful exposure. Let OEHS conduct annual assessment of your facility's risk.
Contact Us to Learn More
Types of Air Monitoring
Priorities for air monitoring should be based on the information gathered during initial site characterization. This information serves as the basis for selecting the appropriate monitoring equipment and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to use when conducting site monitoring. Depending on site conditions and project goals, four categories of site monitoring may be necessary:
- Monitoring for IDLH (chemicals Immediately Dangerous to Life or Health) and other dangerous conditions
- General onsite monitoring
- Perimeter monitoring
- Periodic monitoring
Periodic Monitoring
Site conditions, and thus atmospheric chemical conditions, may change following the initial characterization. For this reason, monitoring should be repeated periodically, especially when:
- Work begins on a different portion of the site.
- Different contaminants are being handled.
- A markedly different type of operation is initiated (i.e. barrel opening as opposed to exploratory well drilling).
- Workers are handling leaking drums or working in areas with obvious liquid contamination (i.e., a spill or lagoon).
Perimeter Monitoring
Fixed-location monitoring at the “fence line” or perimeter, where Personal Protective Equipment is no longer required, measures contaminant migration away from the site and enables the Site Safety Officer to evaluate the integrity of the site’s clean areas. Since the fixed-location samples may reflect exposures either upwind or downwind from the site, wind speed and direction data are needed to interpret the sample results.
Personal Monitoring
The selective monitoring of high-risk workers, i.e. those who are closest to the source of contaminant generation, is highly recommended. This approach is based on the rationale that the probability of significant exposure varies directly with distance from the source. If workers closest to the source are not significantly exposed, then all other workers are, presumably, also not significantly exposed and probably do not need to be monitored.
Since occupational exposures are linked closely with active material handling, personal air sampling should not be necessary until site mitigation has begun. Personal monitoring samples should be collected in the breathing zone and, if workers are wearing respiratory protective equipment, outside the face piece. These samples represent the actual inhalation exposure of workers who are not wearing respiratory protection and the potential exposure of workers who are wearing respirators. It is best to use pumps that automatically maintain a constant flow rate to collect samples, since it is difficult to observe and adjust pumps while wearing gloves, respirators, and other personal protective equipment. Pumps should be protected with disposable coverings, such as small plastic bags, to make decontamination procedures easier.
Personal monitoring may require the use of a variety of sampling media. Individual workers cannot typically be outfitted with more than two pumps because this can become cumbersome. Consequently, several days may be required to measure the exposure of a specific individual using each of the media for different contaminants. Alternatively, if workers are in teams, a different monitoring device can be assigned to each team member. Another method is to place multiple sampling devices on pieces of heavy equipment. While these are area, not personal samples, they can be collected very close to the breathing zone of the heavy equipment operator and thus would be reasonably representative of personal exposure. These multimedia samples can yield as much information as several personal samples.
SUCCESS STORIES
Munitions Facility
OEHS revised an existing health and safety plan and implemented changes for a former munitions manufacturing facility. This project required conducting activities in areas where unexploded ordnance was buried in extremely toxic soil conditions.
Gottlieb Memorial Hospital
After a flood in July 2010, Gottlieb Memorial Hospital in Melrose Park, Illinois, asked OEHS to provide a damage assessment of the basement and ground floor of three of its facilities. We evaluated the buildings for fungal amplification, designed the remediation strategy, provided oversight of the remediation contractor, and conducted post abatement verification air monitoring.
Industrial Hygiene Projects Completed by OEHS
Through our comprehensive industrial hygiene projects, OEHS has partnered with companies to assess and improve workplace health standards. Some of these valued clients are:
Cray Research, Air Monitoring, Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin
An Industrial hygienist conducted extensive monitoring for a wafer fabrication facility that used the tetrogenic material glycol ethers. Presented recommendations that included control measure, personal protective equipment and administrative controls.
Roquette America, Inc. Industrial Hygiene/Safety Services, Keokuk, Iowa
Primary provider of industrial hygiene and safety services for the mile long corn processing plant. Services provided included Life Safety Design, Fall Protection Survey, onsite safety supervisor, Chemical Safety Officer Training, Industrial Hygiene Air Monitoring Audits, Heat Stress Survey, Conveyor Belt Safety Audit, Ammonia Deluge Design, Accident Investigation subsequent to Amputations, and Explosions.
Mid-State Tank, Hexavalent Chromium Air Monitoring, Arthur, Illinois
Industrial hygienist responsible for the sampling strategy development, oversight of the air monitoring survey and report preparation for hexavalent chromium exposure due to welding of stainless steel. The air monitoring resulted in the discovery of employee overexposure. Made recommendations for control methods which resulted in the elimination of the health hazard.
Master Brand Cabinets, Industrial Hygiene Air Monitoring Survey, Arthur, Illinois
Industrial hygienist responsible for the sampling strategy development, oversight of the air monitoring survey and report preparation for Silica, Total and Respirable Dust. The air monitoring resulted in the discovery of employee overexposure. Made recommendations for control methods which resulted in the elimination of the health hazard.
Standard Aero, Industrial Hygiene Air Monitoring Surveys, Springfield, Illinois
Industrial hygienist responsible for the sampling strategy development, oversight of the air monitoring survey and report preparation for hexavalent chromium exposure due to welding of stainless steel and Respirable Silica. The air monitoring resulted in the discovery of employee overexposure. Made recommendations for control methods which resulted in the elimination of the health hazard.
Solomon Colors, Industrial Hygiene Air Monitoring Surveys, Springfield, Illinois
Industrial hygienist responsible for the sampling strategy development, oversight of the air monitoring survey and report preparation for total and respirable dust exposures from the manufacturing process. The air monitoring resulted in the discovery of employee overexposure. Made recommendations for control methods which resulted in the elimination of the health hazard.
Keokuk Contractors, Industrial Hygiene Air Monitoring Services, Keokuk, Iowa
Industrial hygienist responsible for the development of an air monitoring sampling strategy and monitoring oversight, and report preparation for nitric acid and ferric chloride. The air monitoring was the result of an OSHA complaint which was found to be unfounded.
Metal Décor, Air Monitoring Survey, Springfield, Illinois
Industrial hygienist responsible for the development of an air monitoring sampling strategy and monitoring oversight, and report preparation for nitric acid and ferric chloride. The air monitoring was the result of an OSHA complaint which was found to be unfounded.
Flexitech, Air Monitoring Survey, Bloomington, Illinois
Industrial hygienist responsible for the development of an air monitoring sampling strategy, oversight and report preparation for employee exposure to total and respirable elemental metal dust during the manufacture of automobile parts.
AMPAD, Air Monitoring Survey Mattoon, Illinois
Industrial hygienist responsible for reviewing MSDS information to determine the potential chemical exposures in the lithography section of the plant. Developed sampling strategy to evaluate the chemical exposures, developed the report and provided recommendations for control measures.
Commercial Packaging Inc., Air Monitoring Survey Normal, Illinois
Industrial hygienist responsible for designing the sampling strategy, monitoring oversight and report preparation to evaluate volatile organic compounds and methyl bromide exposures in a warehouse utilized to store imported packaging materials.
CHI Overhead Door, Air Monitoring Survey, Arthur, Illinois
Industrial hygienist responsible for the design, oversight, and report preparation of air survey to evaluate employee exposure to methylene bisphenyl isocyanate (MDI). The survey indicated employee exposure and control measures were developed.
Bunn-O-Matic, Air Monitoring Survey, Springfield, Illinois
Industrial hygienist for designing the sampling strategy, conducting an air monitoring survey, and report preparation for welding fume, Hexavalent Chromium, grinding dust, solvents and acids.
Rutland Products, Jacksonville, Illinois
Principal industrial hygienist for designing and conducting ventilation survey for three mixer/Muller local exhaust ventilation hoods and associated ductwork system. Survey included collecting hood face velocity readings, conducting pitot traverse to determine the duct transport velocities and total volumetric flow rates.
Veterans Affairs Medical Center, occupational health medical surveillance program, Marion, Indiana
Industrial hygienist for management, development and implementation of an occupational health medical surveillance program for a large 1,200-bed hospital located in northern Indiana. This project involved classifying occupations by type of exposure and working with the medical staff to recommend appropriate examination and exam frequency to provide adequate employee protection for the anticipated occupational stresses.
Christie Clinic, Champaign, Illinois
Designed and developed a sampling strategy for the clinic which included light survey, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, ergonomics and heat stress. Findings and recommendations assisted in the reduction of employee complaints and lost time.
General Motors' Plants, Southeastern Michigan
Industrial hygienist for design, management and implementation of a comprehensive industrial hygiene survey for numerous General Motor’s parts manufacturing and assembly plants in southeastern Michigan.
Mazda Motors, Plant, Flatrock, Michigan
Industrial hygienist for design of an air monitoring sampling strategy for the comprehensive industrial hygiene survey at the Mazda Motors manufacturing and assembly plant.
Beaver Precision, Missile Parts Manufacturing Facility-Sampling Methodology, Troy, Michigan
Industrial hygienist for design of a sampling methodology for a Patriot missile parts manufacturing facility where military-mandated lead-based and chrome-based paint were spray applied. Recommendation included redesigning the ventilation system, revising work procedures, and providing improved personal protective equipment to employees.
United States Corps of Engineers, Industrial Hygiene Surveys, Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan
Industrial hygienist for design and management of an asbestos and air-quality survey for a facility in Northern Michigan.
AC&R Components, Air Monitoring, Chatham, Illinois
Industrial hygienist for conducting an air monitoring survey for welding fume and solvents and the review of ventilation capture effectiveness.
CHI Overhead Door, Air Monitoring Survey, Arthur, Illinois
Industrial hygiene firm responsible for conducting an air monitoring survey for welding fume and solvents and the review of ventilation capture effectiveness and employee OSHA exposures.