Occupational hygiene refers to the identification, risk assessment, monitoring and control of occupational hazards such as:
- Indoor air quality (IAQ) including thermal comfort, chemical pollutants, mould and bacteria, dust in offices or other non-industrial indoor environments
- Industrial air quality can include a wide variety of contaminants depending on the industrial process being undertaken
- Chemical exposure in the workplace
- Asbestos in the workplace
- Noise in the workplace
Occupational hygienists are scientists or engineers experienced in dealing with occupational hazards and due to OH&S (WHS) laws requiring businesses to identify, risk assess, monitor and control occupational hazards they are used frequently in almost all industries.
Situations requiring an occupational hygienist may have relatively minor individual health consequences, such as poor thermal comfort in an office building, but are important to address because the combined dissatisfaction of a large group of people in an office has the potential to cause a loss of productivity and hence has a financial impact on a business.
In other situations more severe health outcomes can occur such as; exposure to some chemicals in an industrial setting may have acute toxicity effects (poisoning) and in the worst cases could result in the death of a worker.
With more than 30 years experience CETEC are highly experienced in the field of occupational hygiene and can provide the following services:
- Audits of work places to identify and risk assess occupational hazards
- Indoor Air Quality monitoring
- Chemical gas / vapor monitoring – Volatile organic compounds (VOC), formaldehyde, acidic vapors and mists, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur oxides (SOx), mercury
- Airborne dust monitoring – Respirable dust, heavy metals, lead, silicates, diesel particulates, Poly Cyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH)
- Testing of chemical residues on surfaces
- Asbestos identification and air monitoring
- Airborne and surface microbiological testing