Occupational hygiene

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Occupational hazards
Physical Chemical Biological Psychosocial
Hierarchy of hazard controls
Elimination Substitution Engineering controls Administrative controls Personal protective equipment Prevention through design
Occupational hygiene
Occupational exposure limit Exposure assessment Workplace exposure monitoring
Study
Occupational toxicology Occupational epidemiology Workplace health surveillance
v t e

Occupational hygiene (United States: industrial hygiene (IH)) is the anticipation, recognition, evaluation, control, and confirmation (ARECC) of protection from risks associated with exposures to hazards in, or arising from, the workplace that may result in injury, illness, impairment, or affect the well-being of workers and members of the community. These hazards or stressors are typically divided into the categories biological, chemical, physical, ergonomic and psychosocial.^[1] The risk of a health effect from a given stressor is a function of the hazard multiplied by the exposure to the individual or group.^[2] For chemicals, the hazard can be understood by the dose response profile most often based on toxicological studies or models. Occupational hygienists work closely with toxicologists (see Toxicology) for understanding chemical hazards, physicists (see Physics) for physical hazards, and physicians and microbiologists for biological hazards (see Microbiology Tropical medicine Infection). Environmental and occupational hygienists are considered experts in exposure science and exposure risk management. Depending on an individual's type of job, a hygienist will apply their exposure science expertise for the protection of workers, consumers and/or communities.