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ISHM Class 7

The document discusses evaluating workplace exposures to chemical, physical, and biological hazards. It involves measuring worker exposure levels, particularly in breathing zones, and comparing measurements to occupational exposure limits. Direct monitoring of air concentrations over time allows calculating time-weighted average exposures. When multiple toxicants are present, their combined exposure is determined by assuming additive effects, unless otherwise indicated. The mixture exposure level is calculated and compared to limits to assess overexposure.

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78 views6 pages

ISHM Class 7

The document discusses evaluating workplace exposures to chemical, physical, and biological hazards. It involves measuring worker exposure levels, particularly in breathing zones, and comparing measurements to occupational exposure limits. Direct monitoring of air concentrations over time allows calculating time-weighted average exposures. When multiple toxicants are present, their combined exposure is determined by assuming additive effects, unless otherwise indicated. The mixture exposure level is calculated and compared to limits to assess overexposure.

Uploaded by

vishimalikshamli2004
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Evaluation

Identifying the extent of exposure to the chemical hazards, physical or biological


agents (or adverse ergonomic situation) in the workplace
•Involves
• measurement of the personal exposure of a worker to the hazard/agent in the
workplace, particularly at the relevant interface between the environment and
the body - breathing zone, hearing zone etc.
• assessment of the data in terms of recommended occupational exposure limits
(OELs), where such criteria exist.
In other words ...

•What - hazards are present at workplace


•Where- the areas where the hazards are present
•When - time and pattern of release of hazards
•How - releasing mechanism of the hazards
•Who - persons likely to be affected by hazards
Evaluating Exposures to Volatile Toxicants by Monitoring
A direct method for determining worker exposures is by continuously
monitoring the air concentrations of toxicants on-line in a work environment.
For continuous concentration data C(t) the TWA (time-weighted average)
concentration is computed using the equation

C(t) is the concentration (in ppm or mg/m3) of the chemical in the air and
tw is the worker shift time in hours.
The more usual case is for intermittent samples to be obtained, representing
worker exposures at fixed points in time. If we assume that the
concentration Ci is fixed (or averaged) over the period of time Ti, the TWA
concentration is computed by

All monitoring systems have drawbacks because


(1) the workers move in and out of the exposed workplace and
(2) the concentration of toxicants may vary at different locations in the work
area.
Industrial hygienists play an important role in the selection and placement of
workplace monitoring equipment and the interpretation of the data
If more than one chemical is present in the workplace, one procedure is to assume
that the effects of the toxicants are additive (unless other information to the
contrary is available). The combined exposures from multiple toxicants with
different TLV-TWAs is determined from the equation

where n is the total number of toxicants, Ci is the concentration of chemical i


with respect to the other toxicants, and (TLV-TWA), is the TLV-TWA for chemical
species i.
The mixture TLV-TWA can be computed from

If the sum of the concentrations of the toxicants in the mixture exceeds this
amount, then the workers are overexposed. For mixtures of toxicants with
different effects (such as an acid vapor mixed with lead fume) the TLVs
cannot be assumed to be additive.

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