Industrial hygiene is sometimes a term that gets thrown around in the workplace without people truly understanding what it means. While it’s great for employers to be aware of industrial hygiene, talking about it isn’t enough. Employers need to fully understand the concept of industrial hygiene in order to practice and implement it properly. Fortunately, once employers get a better handle on what industrial hygiene actually means, they can create a better and safer workplace for everyone. To help make that happen, here is a deep dive into industrial hygiene and what all employers should know about it.
The first step in understanding industrial hygiene is defining it. The textbook definition of industrial hygiene refers to it as the science of anticipating, recognizing, evaluating, and controlling environmental factors and stresses in the workplace that can lead to sickness, impaired health, or discomfort among workers and the community.
In other words, industrial hygiene involves both monitoring and analysis to understand health and safety risks in the workplace while finding ways to control those risks. It’s all about building awareness of safety risks, understanding the seriousness of those risks, and then finding ways to control and reduce those risks. In the end, industrial hygiene is all about creating a safer work environment, but there is so much that goes into that.
The next phase of understanding industrial hygiene is recognizing all of the different types of injuries and illnesses that are possible in manufacturing and industrial settings. The most obvious is the risk of serious injury or fatality if there is an unexpected accident. This is obviously the worst nightmare of any company. It’s also why workplace safety should be a point of emphasis for all businesses.
However, industrial hygiene is more focused on health and safety hazards that can impact the well-being of employees even if there is not an accident. For example, workers who have to repeat the same motions countless times a day are going to be prone to muscle, joint, and bone injuries. These are otherwise known as repetitive stress injuries.
Likewise, environments with a high level of noise throughout the workday can lead to long-term hearing loss. Much like repetitive stress injuries, hearing loss may not occur all at once but can be caused by hazards that seem minor or unimportant.
Industrial hygienists must also be concerned with chemicals and other substances in the workplace. If certain substances are absorbed through the skin, it can lead to poisoning or a severe illness. Rashes and other skin conditions can also be common if employees are asked to work with hazardous materials.
With other substances, the concern is breathing in air that has been contaminated, leading to respiratory illnesses that are potentially serious. Obviously, each workplace is different and has different hazardous substances, which is why industrial hygiene can be so challenging and needs to be a point of emphasis for companies.
With such a wide spectrum of hazardous materials and potential illnesses, there is a lot that can go wrong in a workplace that has poor industrial hygiene. Needless to say, any employee getting hurt or sick in a significant way is a terrible consequence. These instances need to be prevented as much as possible for the sake of the individuals who will suffer from illnesses and injuries.
However, companies with poor industrial hygiene face consequences as well. When employees get sick or injured, they can’t work, which can hurt productivity. The company can be short-staffed with other employees covering for the person who’s absent. Even when that person returns to work, they may not be as physically fit as before or comfortable working, which can hurt their overall productivity.
Naturally, lower productivity can harm a company’s bottom line. When productivity drops, the business can’t keep up with demand. At the same time, morale among employees can decline when people see their co-workers get sick or injured on the job. It’s hard to fully quantify the impact of low morale, but there is no question that low employee morale will also diminish productivity.
Keep in mind that businesses aren’t paying employees any less if they are less productive because of poor morale. Most likely, they are also paying the sick or injured employee while they are absent from work. Therefore, poor industrial hygiene can cause companies to flush money down the drain.
The good news for businesses is that the opposite is also true. Strong industrial hygiene not only keeps employees coming back to work every day but can also boost morale. Again, it’s hard to quantify, but employees will likely work harder when they feel safe at work and know that their employer is doing everything possible to protect them. This is perhaps the best example of how good industrial hygiene can benefit a business.
Four basic principles of industrial hygiene need to be understood to perform this task efficiently. Without being attentive to all four principles, industrial hygiene will falter and workplaces will become less safe.
The first principle of industrial hygiene is always to anticipate things that could go wrong. If you can predict things that could go wrong, it becomes easier to prevent them. In most workplaces, it’s not too difficult to point out things that could go wrong or obvious hazards that exist. However, there can be safety issues that lurk beneath the surface and can be a little harder to anticipate
Once a business knows where to look for safety challenges and anticipates what can go wrong, the next step is always recognition. This means monitoring and observing specific areas and tasks. Are employees wearing safety gear during certain tasks? Are employees handling hazardous materials properly? In short, recognizing activities that could lead to health and safety issues without the right precautions.
Another principle of industrial hygiene involves evaluating the level of risk a safety hazard poses and the seriousness of the consequences should something go wrong. This means quantifying every hazard or possible hazard that’s been identified. Therefore, a business will understand what hazards are the most serious and should be prioritized over others where the chances of an accident or the consequences of one are less serious.
The last principle of industrial hygiene – and perhaps the most important – is finding ways to control safety hazards. This means finding solutions that can reduce the risk a hazard poses to employees. In some cases, this will mean changing workflows or finding a way to eliminate a certain hazard completely. Depending on the nature of the hazard, there could be several possible options for controlling it.
While an industrial hygienist mostly operates based on the four aforementioned principles, the job is a little more involved than that. The overall goal is to keep employees protected while following all regulatory standards that relate to workplace health and safety. But making sure all of that happens takes a lot of work.
For starters, industrial hygienists will conduct frequent workplace inspections in order to identify and analyze all safety hazards. They will update the information they have on all existing hazards to see if anything has changed since their last inspection. They will also be on the lookout for previous undetected safety hazards. After all, it’s the hazards that nobody knows about that can be the most dangerous.
For all hazards detected during an inspection, an industrial hygienist must assess whether the safety controls in place reduce the risk of that hazard to a level that’s as low as reasonably possible. This means considering new methods of reducing safety risks or new ideas for eliminating a hazard entirely. Keep in mind that new technology is being developed, so an industrial hygienist must stay updated on these new technologies and assess whether they can be used to improve employee safety.
Of course, when changes to health and safety protocols are made, the industrial hygienist is usually the person leading the way. They are often the person instructing employees on what to do differently and how to integrate those changes. They also have to monitor those changes closely to see if employees are adjusting and assess whether those changes are making a meaningful difference in the health and safety of employees.
The benefit of good industrial hygiene and having at least one employee solely dedicated to this practice should be obvious. Outside of small businesses in reasonably safe industries, there should always be one person who is completely dedicated to watching out for the safety and well-being of employees. Keeping employees protected should be the top priority of every business.
Beyond that, a focus on industrial hygiene creates a safer work environment, which has many benefits. As mentioned, productivity can slow down in multiple ways if there are accidents and injuries in the workplace. Maintaining a safe work environment can often improve productivity because employees will be happy and motivated.
Keeping employees happy can also reduce the need to recruit and onboard new employees because there will be lower turnover. There is also the cost of healthcare when employees get sick or hurt, not to mention the risk of fines if regulatory standards aren’t met.
The bottom line is that a strong focus on industrial hygiene is one of the best things a company can do for its bottom line. Making an investment in industrial hygiene is a great way to save money in other areas. In the long run, it’s not just going to be good for the health and safety of employees but for the financial health of a business as well.