INDUSTRIAL HYGIENE

Science of Identification, Evaluation, and Mitigation/Control of actual or possible exposures Governed by Laws and Regulations Laws are enacted, e.g. by Congress and President (see Table 3.3) Laws authorize the development of Regulations but do not contain details Regulations (detailed rules and procedures) are developed by the authorized organizations National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) created by law in 1970 - Research to develop data and information on hazards Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) created by law in 1970 - Uses NIOSH data to develop regulations/standards/best practices Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) - Enforces, and assists in compliance with, the regulations

Examples of Important Regulations

OSHA Process Safety Management (PSM) Regulation since 1992 14 major sections - Employee participation - Process safety information - Process hazard analysis - Operating procedures - Training program - Contractor selection - Pre-startup safety review - Mechanical integrity of equipment - Hot work permits - Management of change - Incident investigation - Emergency planning and response - Audits - Trade secrets EPA Risk Management Plan (RMP) Designed with focus on off-site population and environmental risk management - Hazard assessment - Prevention program - Emergency response program - On-site documentation

Identification
Requires thorough study of process, conditions, and procedures Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) for each chemical Available from manufacturer, commercial databases, or private library Contains summary of hazards, toxicological data, and procedures for handling/storage/response

Evaluation
Measure/monitor extent and degree of employee exposure to toxicants/physical hazards Consider both chronic exposure and acute exposure if necessary Compare actual exposure levels to acceptable levels

If unacceptable exposure then must take necessary steps to decrease exposure levels

Exposure Measurement/Monitoring of Chemical Exposure

Time-Weighted Average (TWA) exposure concentration (for chemicals or dusts)

1w TWA C (t )dt 80
Integral is over the worker shift time (tw), but is always normalized to an 8-hour work day
If sampling is intermittent, then replace the integral by a summation over time intervals:

TWA

C1T1 C2T2 ... CnTn 8

If the actual TWA is greater than the TLV-TWA, then the worker is overexposed If exposure involves a mixture of chemicals, then compare the total concentration (including all the chemicals) to a mixture-TLV calculated as follows:

(TLV TWA)mix

C
i 1 n

Ci i 1 (TLV TWA)i

Noise Exposure
Measured in decibel (dB) scale: dB = -10.log10(I/I0)
Absolute decibel scale (dBa): use the minimum hearing threshold as the I0 value

Estimating Worker Exposures to Toxic Vapors

Required for design purposes Example: Vapor concentration in an enclosed, ventilated space with a vapor source

C ppm

Qm RT 106 kQv PM

Mass evaporation rate, ventilation rate, non-ideal mixing factor (k ~ 0.1-0.5)

Estimation of evaporation rate

Qm

MKA( Psat Pbulk ) RTL

Pbulk ~ 0, K = mass transfer coefficient (from correlation), A = area exposed

Example: Exposure during Vessel Filling

Evaporation directly from liquid surface Displacement of vapor in vessel by liquid

Qm Qm1 Qm 2

MPsat ( KA f rf Vc ) RTL

Vc = container volume, rf = filling rate (time-1), f = non-saturation adjustment factor (f ~ 1 for splashing, and ~ 0.5 for subsurface filling)

Exposure Control/Prevention Techniques

Enclosures Local ventilation Dilution ventilation Wet methods (e.g., absorbers/air scrubbers) Personal protection (clothing, respirators)

Ventilation
Dilute the contaminant below a target concentration (at or below TLV) Remove it before workers are exposed Essentially a negative pressure system of fans and ducts for air flow For bench/lab scale operations, use a fume hood Equipped with a shield, hence workers may not
Shield closed

be exposed at all
However, a minimum control velocity of air through the hood is necessary to prevent escape For large-scale operations, use dilution ventilation Always exposes workers to a finite concentration (since there is no shield)
Shield open