Industrial Hygiene Programs in Chemical Companies Research Paper

Industrial Hygiene Programs in Chemical Companies - Research Paper Example This concept is not something new to the world. Industrial hygiene has been at work since the olden labor days and has made a lot of impact on our history.    â€Å"In 1908, the public awareness of occupationally related diseases stimulated the passage of compensation acts for certain city employees. States passed the first workers' compensation laws in 1911. And in 1913, the New York Department of Labor and the Ohio Department of Health established the first state industrial hygiene programs. All states enacted such legislation by 1948. In most states, there is some compensation coverage for workers contracting occupational diseases.† (Informational Booklet on Industrial Hygiene, 1998) The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is the leading developer of industrial hygiene all over the country. These people are the ones in charge of building up and then maintaining a set of health standards that shall be promoted to all relevant parties in the U.S. They are trained to anticipate, recognize, evaluate and recommend the environmental hazards that could affect the health and well-being of the people in a particular workplace. This concerns the control over toxic chemicals, harmful biological and physical agents that the employees get in contact with every day. Let us then look into what the industrial hygiene protects the workers from. To do this, we need to go through the basics. There are a number of chemical hazards that are present in a chemical company workstation namely: Irritants, Asphyxiants, CNS Agents, Specific Organ Agents, and Genetic Activity. Irritants come in the primary form (at the source of contact) and secondary form (travels through the blood to another area). Both forms can create damages to one’s eyes, skin and even the respiratory system.