Millions of work environments contain immense hazards with the potential to cause illnesses and ultimately, death. Such hazards include pertinent issues such as extreme temperatures, stressing ergonomic designs, and chemical vapors with possibilities of life-changing future problems. Compounding the problem is the fact that numerous workers are seemingly ignorant of potential hazards and do not fully comprehend the immensity of their surroundings. In this regard, industrial hygienists are crucial as their science devotes time to the anticipation, evaluation, control, and prevention of environmental stressors within workplaces.
Consider a chemical industry where oil refining takes place. Wide ranges of potential occupational health hazards are present. Commonly, exposures result from the inhalation of gaseous vapor, predominantly hydrocarbons present in crude oil, or those emitted in the process of refining. Skin contact can occur, resulting in grotesque burns, among other complications. In addition, the presence of sulfur derivatives such as sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, and mercaptans further augments health hazards exponentially. Aside from oil extraction and refining processes, exposure to fumes and dust from maintenance operations such as catalysts use, abrasive blasting, and the use of solid and viscous products is decidedly hazardous.
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Therefore, the industrial hygienist has increasing challenges due to numerous hazards within the oil industry. Primarily, in such a scenario, preventing the emission of harmful hydrocarbons requires the hygienist to implement tools such as the emissions inventory module, which sets emissions at a certain limit, thereby improving sustainability regulations as well as air quality. Moreover, setting a chemical compliance module allows the refining company to oversee pertinent chemical activities in all stages within the process, thus ensuring compliance. Using tools such as Safety Data Sheets (SDS), hazard classification, and proper storage and transportation, the hygienist ensures proper anticipation, recognition, evaluation and control of the inherent problem within oil settings.
