IHS111

INDUSTRIAL HYGIENE

CHAPTER 4
EVALUATION OF RISK
 DEFINITION :

Risk Assessment, or risk evaluation, is a scientific /

mathematical discipline which is a substantive, changing and
controversial field at the margin of understanding of the health
effects of chemicals and other substances.
 Risk assessment : two ways

Qualitative
- virtually the same thing as “hazard evaluation
” step of “Quantitative” Risk Assessment
- is the material harmful to humans under any
circumstances Quantitative
- Codified by agencies, especially for cancer A formal process with four steps
Ends with a mathematical estimation
of actual risk, usually quantified as
deaths per 1,000,000 per year or
less.
4.1 Principle in evaluating workers exposure

• Sequence for decision–making process

• Exposure assessment evaluation by:
qualitative,
semi-quantitative, or
quantitative methods (depends on purpose)
• Feedback from multiple sources
• Effective OH program, info collection, analysis, and
decision-making are continuous and simultaneous.
ANTICIPATION
Expectation of potential health hazards is generally more
difficult for the entry-level and inexperienced OH/IH perso
nnel.
Skills generally increase with experience.
Ability to recognize potential health hazards:
- scientific developments,
- new technologies, and
- regulatory requirements, etc.
RECOGNITION
Requires knowledge and understanding of:
- workplace environmental stresses;
- effects on worker health;
- processes and control measures;
- inventory of hazards including:
- chemical,
- biological, and
- physical hazards.
Potential chemical hazards – determination of toxicity
and conditions of use.
Collect available information - apply IH principles.
RECOGNITION

Detailed information to be obtained regarding:

- hazardous materials used (i.e. inventory),
- type of job operation,
- worker exposures and patterns,
- levels of air contaminants,
- exposure duration,
- control measures, etc.
RECOGNITION
Consult product information - MSDSs.
Develop workplace characterization –
define “exposure groups”
for same tasks/similar manner
(e.g. chemical, physical,
biological hazards, etc.
also ergonomic considerations).
EVALUATION
Involves observation;
monitoring and use of analytical methods required to detect
the extent of exposure;
decision-making process for opinion on the degree of health
hazards and/or stressors;
determine significance (e.g. judgment);
extent of potential health hazards based on comparisons of
environmental measurements with current governmental
regulations and recommended technical guidelines.
EVALUATION
• Exposure assessment:
– initial qualitative method for prioritization;
– then, semi-quantitative (i.e. mathematical modeling)
or quantitative (i.e. monitoring) methodologies.
• Air monitoring for quantitative assessment; breathing zone
exposures preferred.
• On-going process: feedback from multiple info sources;
refine exposure estimates; evaluate control effectiveness;
priorities change/modify!
• Initially “dangerous trades” vs. varied issues today.
EFFECTIVE EVALUATION

• Utilize a multi-disciplinary approach including knowledge-

based technical information. Contributions include:
occupational hygiene, chemistry, engineering, health physics,
medicine, epidemiology, toxicology, and nursing disciplines
as well as management and manufacturing expertise.
• Integrate knowledge and develop control strategies for
potential risk limitation.
• Consider team-based efforts of personnel including getting
expert opinions and other input.
 EXPOSURE ASSESSMENT

• Control exposures
• Compliance determinations
• Program management (i.e. respiratory; hearing/noise;
medical surveillance, etc.)
• Epidemiologic studies
• Health complaint investigations
• Risk assessment
• Proposed change evaluations to process
 CONTROL
• Defined as the adjustment or regulation of an
operation to meet a standard or guideline;
• the reduction or prevention of contaminant
release; and,
• the ability to contain a stressor/hazard.
4.2 Principle in qualitative evaluation, introduction of basic qualitative evaluation
(HIRARC, HRA, CHRA)

DEFINITION :

HIRARC = Hazard Identification Risk Assess

ment Risk Control

HRA = Health Risk Assessment

CHRA = Chemical Health Risk Assessment

PRELIMINARY ASSESSMENT - QUALITATIVE

Familiarity with process/operation to qualitatively evaluate

magnitude (e.g. chemical and physical hazards) without
benefit of instrumentation.

Visual observations; use of senses (i.e. smell); inspection

of control measures used and effectiveness; PPE.
 EXPOSURE ASSESSMENT
Determination or estimation of the magnitude,
frequency, duration, and route of exposure.
• Estimation can be qualitative or quantitative.
• Defines exposures that occur or anticipated for
human populations.
• Complex task regarding persons and workplace
exposures to hazardous substances.
 FIVE STEPS FOR
EXPOSURE ASSESSMENT

• Determine purpose and scope of survey

• Become familiar with process operations
• Perform preliminary/qualitative survey
• Conduct workplace monitoring (i.e. quantitative evaluation)
• Interpret results.
• Steps can be consecutive or simultaneous!
 TYPES OF EVALUATIONS
• Comprehensive exposure assessment to identify and
quantify health hazards
• Assess compliance with regulatory standards and/or
technical guidelines
• Review exposures based on complaints
• Exposure assessment for medical and epidemiological
studies
• Determine effectiveness of engineering and/or administrative
controls.
 COMPREHENSIVE EXPOSURE ASSESSMENT

Primary objective - acceptability of health hazard exposures

for all workers in occupational settings or for specific
operations such as batch production, spill response, pilot
projects, and maintenance.

Identification and quantification/estimation of exposures to

workplace stressors; use of walk-through survey procedure,
and evaluation techniques to estimate employee exposure
levels. Use of databases.
 COMPLIANCE SURVEY
Exposure to stressors are quantified and evaluated by
comparison to published health standards, OSHA Permissible
Exposure Limits (PELs) or technical recommended guidelines
such as American Conference of Governmental Industrial
Hygienists (ACGIH) Threshold Limit Values (TLVs).
Determine compliance vs. non-compliance.
 COMPLIANCE
• Compliance is acting in accordance with health and safety
regulations.
• Noncompliance is failure to act as above.
• Demonstration of noncompliance requires that an exposure
exceed the standard with an acceptable degree of certainty,
usually 95% confidence.
• Therefore, maximum risk employees addressed for
comparison. Indicate OH program weakness.
• Standards allow re-evaluation related to documentation and
rigorous statistics regarding exposures being under
control as an incentive.
 COMPLAINT RESPONSE

• Evaluation should include interviews, walk-through surveys

to obtain necessary workplace information.
• Recognize cause of health hazard as same or different
than noted.
• At conclusion, inform complainant of results to demonstrate
that potential health hazards are seriously considered.
 MEDICAL AND EPIDEMIOLOGICAL STUDIES

• Personnel need to understand worker exposures

to evaluate the effect - individually or group.
• Past exposure assessed by modeling scheme or o
n a qualitative, subjective basis.
• Quantification of past exposures is difficult.
• Exposure information available for epidemiological
studies to relate health effects.
 CONTROL EFFECTIVENESS
• Effectiveness of engineering and administrative
controls assessed either separately or as part
of a comprehensive exposure assessment.
• Example: before and after monitoring related to
engineering controls.
• Administrative controls by sampling over time
during use of various work practices.
 PROCESS OPERATIONS
• Physical facility layout
• Process description and steps
• Inventory of process stressors/hazards
• Employee job classifications
• Worker health status
• Control measures in place
• Past evaluation results
• Other associated process hazards
 PHYSICAL FACILITY LAYOUT
• Understand general facility layout
• Location, terrain, physical arrangement
• Examine facility (i.e. blueprints, drawings,
diagrams, documents, etc.)
• Observe ventilation systems along with
existing airflow patterns
• Photographic documentation
 PROCESS DESCRIPTION
Information obtained through interviews, personal/
visual observations, technical process information
, and record reviews.

Walk-through survey is an important methodology

to understand, verify, and/or document; investigate
potential sources of health hazards along with air
contaminants and physical agents.
POTENTIAL INDUSTRIAL AIR CONTAMINANTS
• Welding fumes – metal fumes and oxides, welding
rods, coatings, decomposition products, and
products of combustion
• Combustion products – CO, NOx, particulates
• Foundry emissions – Si, oil mist, metals, CO
• Smelting – combustion products, metal fumes,
SO2, and metals
POTENTIAL INDUSTRIAL PHYSICAL AGENTS

• Noise – equipment, compressed air, etc.

• Ionizing radiation - isotopes, machinery, X-Ray,
process controls (levels, thickness)
• Non-ionizing radiation – welding, UV energy,
thermal IR sources, radar, microwave, etc.
• Heat – thermal stresses include furnaces, smelting,
casting operations, drying ovens
 STRESSOR INVENTORY
• Hazard/Stressor listing for identification
• Chemical and physical agents
• MSDSs
• Toxicological information; reference sources
• Occupational Exposure Limits (OELs)
e.g. OSHA PELs, ACGIH TLVs,
NIOSH RELs, AIHA WEELs,
ANSI, NIOSH Pocket Guide
 TOXICITY VS. HAZARD
• Toxicity is the capacity of a material to produce
injury or harm to living tissue when agent has
reached a sufficient concentration at certain
site in the body.
• Hazard is the probability that this concentration
will occur within the body; affected by many
factors related to conditions of use, frequency,
duration.
OCCUPATIONAL EXPOSURE LIMITS (OELs)
• Regulatory standard – issued by governmental
body (i.e. OSHA)
• Voluntary guidelines – published by consensus
process (i.e. ACGIH, ANSI); used at discretion
of employer
• “Local limits” – developed by organizations if
stressor is not addressed by regulation or
voluntary guidelines (i.e. manufacturer)
 JOB CLASSIFICATIONS/
WORK HEALTH STATUS

Formal job descriptions, and personnel interview

s with employees/supervisors. Directly observe
materials, operations, and activities!
Worker health status – medical surveillance for h
ealth hazard recognition and workplace logs of in
cidents/injuries/illnesses for assistance with stres
sor identification.
 CONTROL MEASURES

• Document control measures used and effective

ness by walk-through surveys.
• Methods of eliminating or minimizing health
hazard exposures.
• Examples: general ventilation; isolation /
enclosure; admin; PPE.
• Observe also lack of control measures.
 CONTAMINANT ESTIMATION
Reasonable estimate of contaminant concentrations
help with sampling strategy to outline assessment
time intervals, selection of equipment, methods, etc.

Info from walk-through survey, personnel discussion

s, degree of familiarity of similar operations, past
data examination, etc.
 SAMPLING AND ANALYTICAL
METHOD SELECTION
Use accurate and appropriate analytical methods and
calibrated sampling equipment. Knowledge of interferences
, detection limits, etc.
Principles – validated methods (OSHA, NIOSH).
Communicate with lab!
Specificity, selectivity, reproducibility, etc. for methods and
also direct-reading instruments.
Limitations - combine workplace observations with
measurements for result interpretation.
 EQUIPMENT SELECTION
• Type of analysis or information required
• Efficiency of instrument
• Reliability of equipment under various field use
conditions
• Portability and ease of instrument use
• Personal choice of IH by past experience
• No single instrument exists – universal/general vs.
specific unit.
Hazardous substances - evaluation

• Different measuring principles - gases & vapors:

Long term Leak detection
Short term

Bio monitorin
g Stationary monitoring
Hazardous substances - evaluation

• Different measuring principles - dust & solids :

Long term Bio monitoring Short term
 EQUIPMENT CALIBRATION
• Calibration – necessary to insure data representative
of exposures; results based on instrument accuracy
(i.e. direct-reading) and/or sampling and analytical
methods; pre- and post-calibration for air sample
volume; temperature/pressure adjustments.
• Direct-reading instruments – known concentration of
calibration gas for unit.
• Proper PPE by IH during field work.
 SAMPLE COLLECTION

• Follow strategy to not bias results or compromise the

integrity of conclusions.
• Adjust or modify as needed but record!
• Phased sampling strategy is option
• Review procedures; equipment/supplies
• Understand impact on the work environment; worker
participation
• Recordkeeping – extensive notes and INFO to assist with
data interpretation
• Handling – labeling; chain of custody
SAMPLING AND ANALYTICAL PROCEDURES

Selection of measurement method depends on strategy

requirements and purpose with:
– duration of sampling [TWA vs. STEL],
– sensitivity of the method/detection limit,
– freedom from interferences/result bias,
– time for reporting of results,
– intrusiveness, and
– accuracy.
 DURATION OF SAMPLING
Dependent on averaging time of OELs:
– 8-hour TWAs – single vs. several consecutive sa
mples over 8 hours
– Short-term or instantaneous (i.e. grab) – not for f
ull-shift exposures
– STELs – 15 minutes
– Ceiling – minutes.
OTHER SAMPLING AND ANALYTICAL PARAMETERS

Consider sensitivity of method/detection limit.

Method detection less than OEL of interest.
Aware that other airborne substances may cause in
terferences.
Laboratory can provide guidance.
Turnaround – routine vs. rush.
Intrusiveness/Representative considerations.
Accuracy – environmental variability.
INTERPRETATION OF SAMPLING RESULTS
• Concentrations
• Calculations based on time periods/use of assumptions
and professional judgment/OELs.
• Test statistics
• Professional judgment – acute/chronic
• Information for data interpretation
- Precise nature of material/agent
- Intensity/magnitude of exposure
- Reliable knowledge of frequency/duration.
 COMPARISONS
• TWAs vs. STELS
• Best sampling strategy for full-shift integrated personal
sampling; short-term tasks about variability [peak/ceiling -
instantaneous]; general area samples not specifically
recommended.
• OELs – direct result comparison with:
– OSHA PELs,
– ACGIH TLVs,
– NIOSH RELs,
– AIHA WEELs, etc.
RISK ASSESSEMENTS examples :

Stone Cutting
Paint Spraying
Grain Sack Filling
Sack Emptying
Soldering