Applications and Computational Elements of Industrial Hygiene.

Martin B. Stern, Zack Mansdorf

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781351466240
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Industrial Engineering
• Index: Technology & Engineering

Presenting the only textbook available today that covers all of the critical elements of industrial hygiene ó conceptual information, computational coverage, case studies, and sample problems and exercises ó in one volume. Organized around the basic rubrics of industrial hygiene, this book helps students to think like industrial hygienists while offering the latest techniques for practicing professionals. Applications and Computational Elements of Industrial Hygiene is the most complete reference available on IH, and is also an ideal study aid for exam preparation.
This is the first and only textbook that includes all critical computations for each concept covered. Each chapter discusses a different hazard and how to recognize, evaluate, and control it. The advantage of this approach is clear; technical issues, instrumental techniques, engineering control procedures ó relevant issues from A to Z ó are discussed for each hazard. Chapters conclude with case studies that offer critical insight into the practical aspects of the field. The book also covers emerging issues that will affect industrial hygienists in the future. The book includes real-life situations and experiences to demonstrate practical applications of concepts presented in the text.
For students, Applications and Computational Elements of Industrial Hygiene offers critical material formerly scattered across multiple sources. For seasoned industrial hygienists, this is an essential problem-solving tool and state-of-the-art reference that consolidates and updates previously scattered information.

Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

S. Zack Mansdorf, PhD, CIH, CSP, PE

I. OVERVIEW

Industrial hygiene is a profession dedicated to the anticipation, recognition, evaluation, and control of environmental factors that could result in the injury, illness, impairment, or adversely affect the well-being or efficiency of workers and members of the community. It is a profession that has its roots in many of the traditional sciences (e.g., chemistry, engineering, mathematics, medicine, physics, etc.) as well as the social sciences. Like medicine, it is commonly thought to be both a science and art. A discipline based on established scientific laws and principles which also requires deductive skills and imagination (hence the art).

Industrial hygiene, as a profession, has experienced a phenomenal growth in the last nearly three decades since the passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 in the U.S. While this growth rate is likely to moderate, it is clear that the profession is here to stay and will prosper not only in the U.S. but worldwide.

The remainder of this chapter is organized into seven sections. The first part contains a brief history of industrial hygiene. This is followed by an overview of the structure and function of two important government agencies important to occupational health and safety. These are the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). The next section describes the two major professional membership organizations for industrial hygienists in the U.S. These are the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) and the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH). This section is followed by a description of the professional certification body for industrial hygienists-the American Board of Industrial Hygienists (ABIH). Finally, a review of the basic tenets of the art and science of industrial hygiene is presented: namely, the anticipation, recognition, evaluation, and control of occupational and community hazards.

II. A BRIEF HISTORY OF INDUSTRIAL HYGIENE

Industrial hygiene, as we know it today, has a relatively recent history as a distinct professional practice. Nevertheless, it is rooted in the ancient history of medicine and the sciences. Since it is related to the “industrial” activities of the human species, the first historical reference might be made as much as one million years ago (B.C.) when Australoptihecus walked the earth and suffered the consequences of making stone tools and hunting. Needless to say, little is thought to have occurred in relation to the recognition or control of these “occupational” hazards of ancient times. Even through the Copper and Bronze Ages (circa 5000 B.C.) with their related mining and smelting activities, it was not until about 2000 B.C. that an anonymous Egyptian wrote in Papyrus Selier II:

I have seen…the metal worker at his work; he is grilled at the mouth of the furnace. The mason, exposed to all weathers and all risks, builds without clothing. His arms are worn out with work, his food is mixed up with dirt and rubbish….

From that brief description of toil, it was not until the time of Hippocrates (460-370 B.C.) that occupational disease was first thought to have been recorded. Hippocrates, the Greek physician often called the “Father of Medicine,” described the devastating effects of lead poisoning to miners and metallurgists. He also wrote of fullers, cleaners, and dyers of cloth who used their own urine (improved with wine) as a cleaning agent and subsequently would develop fever, cough, and swelling of the groin and neck. While he was of the belief that good health was the result of the balance of “humors” of the body, he did little to suggest causation or prevention of the adverse health effects of mining and smelting lead.

The next major historical figure with a connection to industrial hygiene was Caius Plinius Secundus, known as “Pliney, the Elder.” Pliney, the Elder (23-79 A.D.) was a Roman scholar who described the use of crude respirators made from animal bladders, “…lest they should inhale the pernicious dust.” used by certain mining trades especially in the mining of cinnabar (red mercuric sulfate). It is also interesting to note that his scientific curiosity resulted in his death from watching the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Pliney, the Elder, might then be thought of as the first “industrial hygienist” to suggest a control measure to lessen the adverse effects of exposure to mineral dusts. The next historical figure of note was Galen (130-200). Galen was a Greek physician who attended the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius. He is remembered by us for his work in describing the adverse effects of acid mists to copper miners. As an example, he had written of a visit to a cave in Cyprus where workers (and Galen) suffered from the “fumes” generated by the greenish waters resulting from copper mining. This waste byproduct was commonly used to make vitriol (a greenish fluid of cooper and other sulfates used in medicine and for dyeing). It was common for miners working in copper mines to have their teeth completely eroded from exposure to acid mists.

From the era of Galen, it is not until the middle centuries that there are any further writings of any significance. An industrial hygienist and student of English, George Krafcisin, in his Masters thesis has suggested that Chaucer described the ill effects of the alchemists trade in his Canterbury Tales written around 1390. In this medieval tale, Chaucer describes the ill effects of “fumes diverse of metals” to a Yeoman. The Yeoman, who is described as sweating and of a dull leaden hue, when asked by his host (one of the Canterbury Pilgrims) why his face is so pale, replies-“I am so used in the fyr to blowe/That it halth chaunged my colour, I trowe.” Krafcisin attributes this and other inferences in this early literature to the alchemist’s trade of working with mercury and arsenic in their quest to turn lead to gold. In the same era (1472), Ulrich Ellenbog of the mining town Augsburg, wrote an eight-page booklet which discussed the toxic effects of working with mercury and lead. However, it was not until the time of Philippus Paracelsus (1493-1541) that a full treatise was written on the hazards of mining. His book, Von der Bergsucht und andersen Bergkrankheiten (On the Miners’ Sickness and Other Diseases of Miners) was published after his death in 1567. Paracelsus, also known by the name Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, was a Swiss physician, alchemist, and scientist. He was town physician and lectured in Basel on the value of observational evidence. Since this was the age of humoral healing and bleeding, of which Paracelsus was not a proponent, he was considered by many of his contemporaries to be a “quack.” While many of his beliefs were contrary to practices of today, he is credited with the early use of medicinals. His contributions to industrial hygiene were related to his writings about chronic lung and stomach diseases from the effects of mining. He wisely attributed these ill effects to the vapors and emanations from smelting. He also accurately described the symptoms of mercurialism and wrote of the effects of “choke damp,” which is carbon dioxide. More importantly, he suggested that avoiding smelting emanations would reduce the chance of disease. Paracelsus also contributed to the field of toxicology and our concept of thresholds with his now-famous statement, “All substances are poisons; there is none that is not a poison. The right dose differentiates a poison and a remedy.” This basic tenant lead to the concept of our current Threshold Limit Values.

At about the same time as that of Paracelsus, Georg Bauer completed a scholarly work titled, De Re Metallica, comprising 12 books about mining technology and its associated hazards. Bauer is best known by his Latin name of Georgius Agricola. While his books were published a full 11 years before (1556) those of Paracelsus, I have listed him after Paracelsus since he was born and died slightly before his contemporary. He was born at Glauchau in Saxony at the beginning of the Renaissance in 1494. Thirty-three years later from his position of town physician for Jachimsthalm (in a Bohemian mining district), he carefully studied the mining techniques and practices of the era. This period of experience and his position as town physician would provide the material for his famous literary work on mining. Of intere...