OCCUPATIONAL HYGIENE

The role of an occupational hygienist is to assist workplaces in protecting the health and safety of site personnel by anticipating, identifying, assessing and controlling workplace hazards that present a risk to human health. The practice of occupational hygiene involves applying these principals to physical, chemical and biological hazards in the workplace. Practically, this can involve the following phases of assessment:

• Gathering of site-specific information to understand the potential and nature of workplace hazards which may be present, and the site personnel who may be at risk,

• Designing an assessment to quantify the suspected risks in accordance with available regulations and guidance material,

• Data collection via sampling and analysis in accordance with the assessment design, evaluation of data against exposure standards / site assessment criteria to determine risk to site personnel and probability of exposure,

• Development of written advice to deliver practical recommendations which ensure suitable control measures can be implemented to minimise / eliminate the risk of exposure in accordance with legislation. Reports may be in the form of a basic report through to a detailed management plan depending on client requirements.

The range of occupational hygiene services offered by Lancaster & Dickenson Consulting are detailed below under the three main hazard types encountered in workplaces: