Industrial hygiene is linked to processes that aim to control environmental factors that can harm health in the work environment.
Industrial hygiene is the set of procedures designed to control environmental factors that may affect health in the workplace. Health is understood as complete physical, mental and social well-being .
Industrial hygiene, therefore, must identify, evaluate and, if necessary, eliminate the biological, physical and chemical agents that are found within a company or industry and that can cause diseases to workers.
Industrial hygiene tasks
Specifically, we can establish that every industrial hygiene practice is responsible for three different types of situations: the first studies that are undertaken within the workplace to evaluate exposure to risks; monitoring and monitoring; and the final evaluation for what are the various epidemiological studies.
This issue is particularly important in those productive sectors that involve the manipulation of contaminants. For example: a company dedicated to dyeing pants must take special precautions with the chemicals it uses in its daily processes. Workers , on the other hand, must have adequate protection in their clothing .
In this sense, we have to explain that the work of the industrial hygienist is fundamental, therefore, since he will be in charge of identifying the different risks to which a person is exposed in his work environment, foreseeing possible risks while advising on how to avoid them, evaluate the various work methods, participate in the analysis of occupational risk or train and educate individuals about the risks.
Industrial hygiene addresses various factors to guarantee the safety of workers.
Verification of contamination levels
Companies have to carry out periodic sampling and measurements to verify the level of polluting agents in the environment. It requires, therefore, the services of a laboratory capable of evaluating the results obtained to guarantee that the industrial environment is not harmful to health.
In its broadest sense, industrial hygiene also includes the study of sound levels or lighting in buildings , among other issues. Exposure to very intense sounds or lack of light to work can affect the worker's hearing and eyes. Health, therefore, also depends on these factors.
The Spanish Association of Industrial Hygiene
We have to emphasize that there is also the Spanish Association of Industrial Hygiene (AEHI) whose main objectives are to significantly improve the different workplaces through the elimination or reduction of the risks to which workers are exposed. employees with regard to their exposure to certain chemical or biological agents, among others.
In this way, to achieve the aforementioned goal and many others, this entity carries out a whole series of actions such as, for example, the organization of events on the subject, to ensure that it becomes a center for exchanging information. and opinions on industrial hygiene.
It should be noted that the essence of industrial hygiene is preventive , since its main objective is to guarantee the well-being of employees by preventing them from getting sick.