Recognition Evaluation Control

Who needs Powerpoint?

2010-06-01T04:16:00.000-07:00

I do, but only sometimes.

It seems that everyone expects speakers/trainers/teachers to have a deck of Powerpoint slides to use when they’re talking. They’re often badly designed and used poorly, but they can be a useful way of making a talk more visual and interesting. However, they can also be a distraction and if overused their impact is reduced.

I probably overuse Powerpoint. It’s easy to do this. Preparing a talk or session on a training course can easily turn into preparing a set of slides which form the structure of the talk and end up being used a speaker prompts. The problem with this is that your talk starts to follow a rigid framework imposed by the default Powerpoint template. I think that Nancy Duarte and Garr Reynolds have it right when the recommend “going analogue” when preparing a talk – i.e. using paper to plan it out. This can free your thought process and allow you to think about how to present your ideas without getting stuck in a Powerpoint induced rut..

From an audience point of view, watching contiuuous streams of slides projected on a screen can become tedious. Its much more interesting if there is some variety in the way material is put across. You’re more likely to keep their attention.

I was running a revision course last week for occupational hygienists preparing to take their Diploma examination. A lot of topics were covered during the week. For the first three days I’d used some slides for some, but not all of the sessions. I’d tried to avoid too many “lectures” and involved the delegates in discussions and group activities.

On the fourth day of the course we started with an open session. I’d asked the delegates to go through past some exam questions the previous evening and decide which questions they’d like to talk through in the class. This meant that I only had a broad view of we’d need to talk about. The session inevitably threw up some topics where the delgates didn’t have much knowledge and were looking to me to help them fill the gaps. I could have started opening up relevant presentations from my laptop but instead we just had a general discussion and where I needed to fill in some details I relied on description and the old fashioned “talk and chalk” approach, using a flip chart. It was really refreshing to do this from my perspective and the delegates seemed to like it too.

I didn’t switch the projector on all day . For the other sessions I used techniques such as brainstorming, breakout groups an, where I had to “lecture” I stuck with the flip chart.

Slideware such as Powerpoint is a useful tool, but it’s only one item in our toolbox. Unfortunately it’s overused. Its refreshing to use other techniques and I think we all benefited from a “Powerpoint free” day.

What's a "confined space"?

2010-06-01T04:14:00.001-07:00

I recently received the following query regarding the application of the Confined Space Regulations 1997:

“is the intent that any room that has a hazard in it is considered a Confined Space? Let’s say we have a room with 2 doors, some general dilution and exhaust ventilation, and has a CO2 line running through it with several flanged connections. The line has never leaked, but I suppose it could if something breaks. Is that a confined space according to the regs?”

The term “confined space” has a particular legal meaning. Once a space is defined as such then the requirements of the “Confined Spaces Regulations 1997″ become applicable and employers are required to

avoid work in the confined space “as far as reasonably practicable”
where work is necessary, ensure that there is a safe system of work
make arrangements to safely rescue anyone who becomes incapacitated within the confined space.

It isn’t true that any room containing a hazard would be considered as a “confined space”. However, I would probably categorise the situation described in the query as such. I once had to deal with a similar situation – a pub cellar where there are CO2 cylinders. There was a risk of a cylinder “bursting” which could release gas into the room. HSE does include “unventilated or poorly ventilated rooms” as an example of a confined space in their guidance on the Regulations in their guidance leaflet, indg258 .

Our British approach is a little woolly, but allows flexibility. The crucial questions to answer when deciding on whether something is a “confined space” are

Is the room “substantially” enclosed? i.e. is access / egress limited?
Is a potential hazard present in the room ( or one is “reasonably foreseeable”)?
In the case of a hazardous gas/vapour/fume/dust, is ventilation limited so that a dangerous concentration is possible?

If the answer to each of these is “yes”, particularly if access/egress limited, then I’d classify it as a confined space and the Confined Spaces Regulations would apply.

In the example given in the query, it appears that there is limited access/egress and there is a reasonably foreseeable risk (albeit small) of a leak. If the concentration could build up to a dangerous level than I’d definitely classify it as a confined space under the Regulations. So the crucial test is whether a leak would lead to a dangerous concentration.

Detailed guidance on the Regulations are available here

BOHS Meeting on the Thermal Environment

2010-05-12T14:19:00.000-07:00

Working in extreme heat

We had a good turnout at the meeting today in Ellesmere Port 28 people turned up to listen to four speakers who covered a number of aspects of managing the thermal environment.

Doug Hiebert talked about how BNFL dealt with a problem at their Selafield site. Maintenance work has sometimes to be carried out in relatively high temperatures and high relative humidity and the risk is increased by the need to wear very comprehensive protective clothing to protect workers from the radiological hazards. One problem they faced when assessing the risk is that it wasn’t possible to use the usual equipment to carry out environmental measurements due to the potential for it to become contaminated.

After assessing the problem a number of measures were implemented including

classifying the area as a “confined space” and introducing restrictions on acess based on factors that could affect an individual’s susceptibility to heat strain
trying to schedule maintenance work during plant shutdowns
introducing quite stringent and conservative time restrictions for work in the area
providing cooling vests

Andrew Moore from the HSE was the second speaker. He provided a regulatory perspective but also gave some good advice on how to manage the health risks associated with work in hot environments. He stressed the importance of obtaining competent advice and effective management, ensuring that all the relevant stakeholders are involved. He illustrated his presentation with a case study where workers at a leisure pool were working in relatively high temperatures and high humidities. Although treated as a thermal comfort problem, the temperatures involved meant that the workers could be considered to be experiencing thermal stress.

I was the third speaker. Copies of my slides with notes can be viewed on Slideshare and a previous post.

The final speaker was Len Morris of the HSE who announced the formation of a BOHS Topic group on the thermal environment. Anyone interested in getting involved should contact BOHS HQ.

There are a number of good on-line information sources for anyone who’d like to find out more about managing the risks to health presented by the thermal environment, including the following

the HSE thermal environment website
the BOHS Technical Guide on the thermal environment andaddendum
HSE’s guidance on heat stress

Visual Notetaking

2010-05-11T11:09:00.000-07:00

I stumbled across this presentation on Slideshare the other day

I think it’s a really example of the modern approach to presentation design as advocated by Garr Reynolds and Nancy Duarte. It’s well designed and very visual. No not boring lists of bullet points here. The content is good and interesting too.

To understand the message fully you’d need to listen to the presenter – and that’s what presentations are about – the slides should support the presentation. With Slideshare that’s not possible (unless the originator records a soundtrack to go with it) so the full message doesn’t come across. However, the creator, Eva-Lotta Lamm, has made the notes that go along with the presentation available on her blog “Do Not Forget”

I like the idea of using sketchnotes and have tried to use them when I’ve attended conferences and meetings over the last 12 months – but I’ve not got the hang of them yet. I’m not a natural sketcher and I still find myself writing out linear lists. But I’m going to keep trying!

Thermal Comfort

2010-05-11T11:04:00.000-07:00

The thermal environment is one of the traditional topic areas studied by occupational hygienists. There are two issues:

thermal stress and strain
thermal comfort

Excessive thermal stress means that the body has to work hard to avoid he core temperature moving outside narrow limits (37 + 2 C). If that happens we’re in a serious situation that leads to serious health effects and may be fatal. Our efforts to prevent this happening can also lead to adverse effects. This is most likely to occur in extreme environments or, sometimes, in more moderate environments where particularly heavy work is being performed or clothing is worn which prevent metabolic heat escaping.

Thermal comfort is most likely to be an issue in workplaces such as offices, but complaints or concerns can sometimes occur in manufacturing environments and other types of workplace. In this case the body is not experiencing a level of stress that it can’t cope with. There isn’t a physiological problem and ill health will not occur due to excessive thermal strain. But that encompasses a wide range of conditions. Will all of them be “comfortable”? Experience clearly shows that the answer to that is “no” !

Most occupational hygienists don’t work in industries work in high or low temperatures and so usually don’t have to deal with problems due to workers experiencing excessive heat or cold stress. However most of us, at some time or other, will be faced with a situation where workers are complaining that an environment is uncomfortable.

The BOHS is holding a Regional Meeting at Ellesmere Port tomorrow on the thermal environment. I’ll be giving a presentation on how to evaluate thermal comfort. These are the slides I’ll be using.

Thermal comfort for bohs version for slideshare notes

View more documents from Mike Slater.

Jocelyn Bell Burnell - "Beautiful Minds"

2010-04-10T02:08:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday this week I watched the first of a series of 3 programmes profiling British Scientists. It told the story of Jocelyn Bell Burnell, who, as a postgraduate student, discovered pulsars – highly magnetized, rotating neutron stars that emit pulses of radiation at regular intervals.

Jocelyn Bell comes across as a genuine, self efacing, modest person. She speaks quietly with a distinct brogue revealing her Northen Irish origin (interestingly, her sister, who was interviewed during the programme, didn’t have a trace of a Ulster accent!). The programme included segments of an interview with her, where she expressed views on the practice of science but mainly concentrated on the story of her discovery of pulsars. As a PhD student in Cambridge, working under Antony Hewish, she was given the task of building a radio telescope (not the dish type but a field full of wires) and analysing the data obtained. Being in the 1950’s this data was in the form of chart recorder data – yards and yards of paper.During this analysis she noticed a series of small “blips”. Initially dismissed as “noise” by her superiors she carried on obtaining better data by slowing down the pen recorder! This allowed her to analyse these “blips” in more detail and it was then quite clear that she had found a series of regular pulses, This led to quite a furore as initially it was thought these could be signals from ET. However, she went on to analyse other parts of the sky where she found similar signals, ruling out the ET theory.

Despite this marvellous work, it was her supervisor, Antony Hewish, who was awarded the Nobel prize. JBB didn’t get a mention. Hewish was interviewed during the programme and justified this by almost dismissing JBB’s role and arguing that it is a team effort and that the team leader is the person who deserves any credit. I think this was absolutely disgraceful and is indicative of the attitude of the scientific establishment. The “top men” taking all the credit and glory and also the embedded misogyny. Despite this, when discussing it during the programme (and I’ve seen other interviews with her where she takes the same attitude), she does not come across as bitter. I don’t know whether she feels any anger inside – if so, she does a good job of hiding it. I suspect this is partly explained by her religion – she is a Quaker and a gentle, stoic attitude and lack of bitterness seems to go allong with that.

Although I enjoyed the programme the content was inevitably limited it mainly concentrated on the pulsar story, only touching on other aspects of her life and career. I would have liked to have known more about how she squares her deep religious conviction with being a scientist and to have learnt more about her career after the 1950’s. In other programmes I’ve seen about her life she has mentioned how difficult it was to work in science as another and how she was able to keep in touch by working as a tutor for the Open University.

More information on JBB can be found on the Internet including some interviews with her that delve into some more detail, here.

Picture credit: NASA via Wikipdedia http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/objects/heapow/archive/compact_objects/vela_pulsar_jet.html

UK Nanotechnology Strategy

2010-04-08T05:47:00.000-07:00

The UK Nanotechnologies Strategy was published on 18th March 2010. It outlines the strategy of the current government, so things may change after May 6th - we'll have to wait and see!

Nano Strategy Fully Accesible Version - Final

The potential health risks from nanoparticles are one of the "emerging issues" that occupational hygienists and health and safety professionals in general need to keep abreast of. Nanotechnology is a fast developing field and the toxicological implications are not fully understood. Governments see nanotechnology as an important emerging technology that can lead to economic benefits and is encouraging its development. It's important that sufficient emphasis is given to research into the health implications.

One of the strategic aims set out in the strategy document is a commitment to

"Better understanding of the risks associated with the use of, and exposure to, nanomaterials, and enough people with the right skills to assess them. "

In respect to this aim the document sets out the following actions

Approaches to Government EHS research on nanotechnologies will be explored by the Chief Scientific Adviser network, with the aim of improving co-ordination. A meeting will be chaired by the Government Chief Scientific Adviser, John Beddington.
There will be an ongoing portfolio of Government and publically funded research into a wide range of crucial EHS nanotechnologies issues including the behaviour of key nanomaterials in the gut when eaten and when inhaled into the lungs.
Contributions will be made to international work programmes on nanotechnologies including the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Nanotechnology Working Parties and the EU’s Framework Programme. The UK will work to influence the future scope of these projects.

All commendable, if rather vague.

One of the problems is that its only possible to see an effect once exposure has occurred so there is a dilemma - how can we detect effects in humans without exposing them to possible dangers? Animal experiments present difficulties both in terms of transferability of the findings to humans and the ethical implications.

Until stronger evidence is available the only sensible approach is to be cautious and apply a high degree of control. Nano-particles may or may not have serious health effects - we don't know - but if we treat them as if they do and design our control strategies similar to those for carcinogens and sensitisers, then we should ensure that worker health risks are minimised.

Surviving in extreme cold

2010-03-30T07:19:00.000-07:00

I watched a TED video today of a talk by Ken Kamler. He was a medic on an expedition to Everest where the climbers were caught out by extreme conditions nearing the summit. Several were killed. Last week on our BOHS Module courseM201 "Thermal Environment and Non-ionising Radiation" we discussed the effects of exposure to cold conditions. This video provides some dramatic illustrations.

One of the climbers caught out on the summit survived unexpectedly. An example of where willpower can lead to someone triumphing against extreme adversity. In his talk, Ken Kamler provides a physiological explanation for this.

Drive

2010-03-15T02:13:00.000-07:00

I've just finished reading the recently published book, "Drive" by Daniel Pink. I bought it having seen his talk on motivation, delivered at the TEDGlobal conference in Oxford last year online.In it he argues that the old approach to rewarding people using "carrots and sticks" is outdated and doesn't work for jobs that are about innovation and initiative. He advocates a new "intrinsic" approach to motivation to replace the outdated "extrinsic" approach for this type of job. The new model of motivation has threHe elements:

autonomy - allowing people to direct their own work and organise their workload
mastery - feeding the urge to do work that is enjoyable and to get better at what you do
purpose - doing something with a larger objective rather than self-interest

Here's the talk he gave at TEDGlobal

I think that he makes a strong case and can see how it applies to my own work. I can see how it particularly applies to my work as an Associate Lecturer for the Open University. I've given up the role this year after working for them for 6 years. The work doesn't pay very well, much less than my "day job", so I clearly wasn't motivated by their "carrot". The pay was welcome, but was not so great. I did it because I enjoyed the work, think that I did a good job, and also was committed to the OU's purpose and ethos. The first two reasons fit into what Pink calls "Mastery" and the third is what he refers to as "Purpose". Within limits (you have deadlines to meet for marking assignments and set dates for tutorials) I could largely choose when I wanted to do the work, fitting it around my other commitments - so I had a large degree of "Autonomy".

I quit this year though. The OU is under severe financial pressures and this has had an impact on ALs. The size of tutor groups have been increased (in some cases this has been achieved by making some ALs redundant) meaning that there are more scripts to mark leading to a heavier workload. So called e-TMAs (assignments delivered electronically) have been made virtually compulsory, but no thought has been given to whether the assignments need to be modified to take account of this. I've found that marking on-screen rather than working with paper scripts is a lot more time-consuming and tiring to mark. This has further increased the workload. This has affected my autonomy and my enjoyment. The OU management style has also changed becoming more aggressive and making more demands on ALs. My feeling of purpose has also been adversely affected.

As my intrinsic motivation has been eroded the old-fashioned extrinsic motivational factors become more important and now the amount they pay comes into the equation and it quite simply isn't enough.

Coping with extreme cold

2010-03-12T09:21:00.000-08:00

We’re running the BOHS module M201 “Thermal environment and non-ionising radiation (including lighting)” in a couple of weeks.

One of the topics we’ll be covering is cold stress and control of risks to health from work in cold environments.

An interesting blog I’ve been following is reporting on the Catlin Arctic Survey 2010. This is a British led expedition to the Artic who are investigating how greenhouse gases could affect the marine life of the Arctic Ocean. The team will be experiencing temperatures down to -30^oC (by way of comparison, a domestic freezer is only–18º) and wind speeds of up to 40kph. There is a real risk of condition such as frostbite and hypothermia.

The expedition doctor, Martin Rhodes, or “Doc Martin”, will be posting information on the medical aspects of the trip. A short video interview with him about the hazards to the human body when operating in a polar environment is available on their website here.

n-hexane

2010-02-24T13:16:00.000-08:00

There was an interesting article in the Guardian a few days ago about the use of n-hexane in a factory in China. The company in question, which produces touch screens fro companies including Nokia, was using the solvent to clean the screens.

N-hexane is one of the organic compounds we study on BOHS Module course M101 ”Effects of hazardous substances”. As an alkane, we wouldn’t expect it to be particularly toxic. Alkanes generally are mild irritants and narcotics (substances that cause depression of the nervous system leading to effects similar to drunkenness). N-hexane is different in that it has been found to have another more serious chronic (i.e. long term) effect. Exposure to the compound can lead to peripheral neuritis – damage to the peripheral nervous system – causing symptoms such as loss of sensation in the fingers. There’s a good summary on the effects of n-hexane here.

The effects on the peripheral nervous systems are not due to the substance itself, but one of it’s metabolites - hexane-2,5-dione. It’s an example where the bitransformation of a substance in the body produces a more toxic compound.
The harmful effects are well known, and in the UK, Europe and the USA companies with a commitment to the health and safety of their workers would avoid using n-hexane wherever possible. It seems that the Chinese company actually used n-hexane as a substitute for the less toxic ethanol. According to the Guardian report about 49 workers were affected. The problem could have been avoided if a serious attitude was taken to health and safety and the principles of occupational hygiene were applied.

Selecting chemical protective gloves

2010-02-05T09:13:00.000-08:00

Where gloves need to be worn for chemical protections its important that they are suitable for the chemical and application concerned and will provide protection for an appropriate time period. Too often inappropriate gloves are worn and even if suitable ones are used, they tend to be used long after they are capable of providing protection.

If it is necessary to use gloves then the first consideration is “what is the chemical we’re protecting against“. Once we know this data should be obtained from glove manufacturers on the breakthrough time, and the permeation rate. The breakthrough time is the time it takes for the chemical to work its way through the glove, which is normally well before any physical degradation has occurred. This will allow the most suitable glove to be selected, as breakthrough times for different gloves for a particular chemical will vary considerably. It will also usually allow the useful life of the glove to be defined – and the replacement frequency.

Degradation data should also be obtained – this is about the physical deterioration of the glove – as this can sometimes occur before breakthrough. Usability considerations are important too. It’s no good specifying gloves that aren’t usable because they’re not compatible with the work or the user.

Each manufacturer should provide data for their own products .

A pdf version of Ansell’s latest chemical resistance guide is available from here. They also have their information on line.

One of the other main suppliers, Marigold, also have an online guide.

Other manufacturer’s should have similar information available. If not, you can’t use their gloves for chemical protection.

New asbestos guidance

2010-02-02T07:23:00.000-08:00

The HSE has jst launched it's new asbestos survey guide.

It can be ordered, or, even better, download for free from http://tiny.cc/6XNcH

"This heavily illustrated publication replaces and expands on MDHS100, surveying, sampling and assessment of asbestos-containing materials. It is aimed at people carrying out asbestos surveys and people with specific responsibilities for managing asbestos in non-domestic premises under the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006. The book covers competence and quality assurance and surveys, including: survey planning, carrying out surveys, the survey report and the dutyholder's use of the survey information. It includes extensive appendices and references and it complements and supports other guidance on managing asbestos."

Girls Aloud on occupational health?

2010-01-31T09:33:00.000-08:00

I wouldn't admit to being a fan of Girls Aloud - I'm not sure what it would do to my reputation of I did! However, it was good to see the article in the Observer today about the campaign by Nicola Roberts, the red headed, pales skinned member of the group, against the use of sunbeds by under 18s. She features in a documentary - "Nicola Roberts – The Truth About Tanning", on BBC3 on Thursday 4th February.

Excessive exposure to UV radiation can lead to a number of skin problems including malignant melanoma. Young people are particularly vulnerable. According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer, the risk of melanoma was increased by 75% in people who started using sunbeds regularly before the age of 30. Yet peer pressure forces many pales skinned young people to use sun beds to try to give themselves a fashionable tan.

We cover the risks of non-ionising radiation on BOHS module M201 "Thermal Environment and Non-ionising radiation" which we are running w/c 22 March. I can't promise that Girls Aloud will be performing though!

Photo credit: Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/22948324@N08/2520077527/

P601 and competence in LEV testing

2010-01-18T13:01:00.000-08:00

I received the following query a few days ago:

A large part of my working life during the last 14 years has been involved with the Thorough Examination and Test of Local Exhaust Ventilation (LEV) systems within the company I work for.

I have now moved on within the same company to a health and safety position, but over the last two years, I have been training another person to carry out the LEV testing under my direct supervision. This person I feel is now capable of carrying out the full inspection and tests on his own.

Being qualified myself to the BOHS P601 standard, can I signs off the reports done by my trainee as being correct (if I feel they are done to a satisfactory standard) or does he need to prove he is competent himself by attending a formal course such as the P601.

This was my answer:

"COSHH requires that anyone carrying out any work required by the Regulations must be competent. This applies to the testing of LEV systems.

Passing P601 is a way of demonstrating competence to test LEV systems to an employer, client or the regulatory authorities. HSE strongly encourage those testing LEV systems to have passed P601, but it is not a legal requirement as such (although I do know of one situation where an Inspector placed an Improvement Notice on a company that required their personnel to take P601).

If you are certain that your colleague is competent and you could demonstrate this by some means if challenged (particularly by the HSE) then, it is probably not necessary for him to have taken the course. It is more important for consultancy/testing companies who provide a service to ensure there staff have the qualification as a means of reassuring the client that they know what they are doing. There are lots of companies offering LEV testing and not all of them are competent.

So, you need to make your own decision based on how confident you are that you can satisfy the HSE that your colleague is competent.

Of course, the above is only my personal opinion. A HSE Inspector could have a different view!"

What's a safe dose?

2010-01-12T02:14:00.000-08:00

It was interesting to see an article in The Guardian yesterday discussing dose response relationships and threshold doses. Generally, increasing the dose of a substance increases the severity of the effect it causes. Similarly, for a given effect, due to individual susceptibility increasing the dose leads to an increase in the response – i.e. the number of people affected. For most substances, however, there is a threshold dose – that is a dose below which no-one is affected. This is because at doses below he threshold, the body’s mechanisms can deal with the substance, preventing harm. This can be represented graphically.

Typical dose-response curve showing a "threshold dose" (source:http://www.unido.org/index.php?id=5297)

With some substances, such as carcinogens and sensitisers, it is not possible to detect a threshold experimentally. It is argued that this is because they do not have one . The response is still dependant on the dose and at very low doses there are still some people who will be affected, albeit a relatively small number. Nevertheless, there is no “safe dose”. In such cases the dose-response curve is likely to be linear.

The Guardian article discusses the views put forward by an Oxford University physicist, Wade Allison, who has published a book in which he argues that there is a threshold for the effects of ionising radiation. He contends that DNA damage caused by exposure below this threshold dose can be repaired by the cells natural processes. This goes against the established view that radiation, like other direct acting carcinogens, has a dose response curve which doesn’t have a threshold, so that there is no identifiable dose below which adverse effects do not occur. Other radiation specialists are quoted in the article who do not support his view.

The difficulty with carcinogens is that at low doses it isn’t possible to accurately determine whether there is an effect. Cancer can be caused by many agents, including some related to lifestyle (e.g. smoking) and natural sources (e.g. background radiation from cosmic radiation and from rocks) and in reality we are normally simultaneously exposed to multiple agents. At low doses a carcinogen, such as radiation, is only associated with very low incidences of the disease. So it can be difficult to determine exactly what is the causative agent. If there is a threshold, it is likely to be very low, and detecting it would be difficult.

HSE Publications on-line

2010-01-04T08:24:00.000-08:00

When I was a young junior occupational hygienist working in industry (a long, long time ago!) one of my bosses' favourite sayings that an occupational hygienist is only as good as his information sources, and, consequently, he always emphasied the importance of having a good library of books and other documents. Of course, in those days, before the advent of the Internet, we had to rely on text books and printed copies of documents published by HSE, NIOSH, ACGIH. It was important that they were kept up to date which entailed purchasing new copies of documents we already had when a new edition came out.

The Internet has changed this to a large extent. Many information sources are now online. This has the benefit of easy acess and ensures that you have the most up to date information - printed documents (particularly toxicological information) can be out of date the moment its published!

The HSE have been quite slow in putting information on-line. The HSE website has improved over the years but the information available has been restricted. Many of their key publications had to be purchased via HSEbooks. They were clearly seen as a source of income. However, this has changes as fairly recently the hSE has made many of their key publications available on-line as pdf documents. They can be read on-line or downloaded from here.

Particularly useful documents now available free of charge include

HSG173: Monitoring strategies for hazardous substances
HSG258 : Controlling airborne contaminants at work: A guide to local exhaust ventilation (LEV)
HSG53 : Respiratory protective equipment at work: A practical guide
The COSHH ACoP
HSG 170 : Vibration solutions: Practical ways to reduce the risk of hand-arm vibration injury
L108 : Controlling Noise at Work

Running Webinars

2009-12-11T07:28:00.000-08:00

Last year I started running teletutorials for a Distance Learning Masters course in Occupational Hygiene. The students were spread out across the globe, so it's not practical to get them together in any other way. I soon found that trying to run them over the telephone was hard work, so decided to try supporting the discussions with software that allowed me, and the participants, to show Powerpoint presentations and other documents on screen as we talked. Effectively, I'd turned the telephone tutorials into webinars.

This has been a new experience for me, and I've very much had to learn as I've gone along. So it was interesting to view a short introductory webinar on:

3 Things Every Presenter Should Know about Webinars | myBrainshark.

presented by Roger Courville, the author of the Virtual Presenter's Handbook.

The key points for me were

Adapt to the medium - i.e. don't treat the webinar the same as a face to face seminar

Engage the participants early and often

Break up the presentation - use polls, Q &As and discussion

Actually, I think the 2nd and 3rd points are pretty valid for face to face seminars too. Certianly I try to keep the group involved whenever I run one. So in reality good practice for both types of session is very similar.

The joys of LEV testing - Part 1

2009-12-10T10:44:00.000-08:00

Quite often when testing a local ventilation system it isn't possible to access the hoods when the process is operating due to safety considerations. Many woodworking processes fall into this category, but there are plenty of other situations where this is the case. It's only possible to measure face and capture velocities when the process isn't running and as the process itself will affect the airflow, measurements taken when the process is down are not representative.

In such cases it's often best to measure the static pressure behind the hoods (in a location that can be accessed safely) but the results are only meaningful where there is data from an initial evaluation obtained when the system is performing as intended and when it is known that control is being achieved. You also need to know what variance in pressure is acceptable (i.e. at what pressure the system stops being effective). Of course, most companies do not have such data!!

Information overload in presentations

2009-10-24T10:24:00.001-07:00

At the conference on REACH I attended a few weeks ago, as usual, all the speakers used slides crammed with information – far too much to cover in the short time slots they were allocated. In every case they either moved through the slides too quickly (so the audience didn’t have time to finish reading the individual slides) or ended up skipping and missing a number of slides.

Why do they do this?

I think that one of the reasons is that speakers at conferences usually have a limited time slot, but have a lot of information they want to communicate. By cramming information onto slides you reduce the total number and fool yourself into thinking that the amount of material you are trying to get across is manageable in the time available. It’s a little like burying your head in the sand. The problem of too much material disappears – until you try to present it!

Most presenters at conferences I’ve attended don’t seem to put thought into the design of their slides. Typically they default to using the easy option of using the standard Powerpoint template which encourages the use of bullet points and sub bullets.

Slides should support the presentation – they’re not a substitute for it. However, where they are used they need to be well designed if they are to perform their function effectively. I think that most presenters don’t put too much thought into that aspect of their presentation. They tend to default to using the standard Powerpoint template that focuses on using words, structured as bullets and sub-bullets.

Research has shown that its better to minimise the number of words on a slide and to use pictures or other visuals where possible. I don’t intend to go into it here, but there is a good explanation of the theory in a recent post on Olivia’s Mitchell’s blog “Speaking about Presentation” which includes a summary of some recent work by Chris Atherton, a cognitive psychologist from the University of Central Lancashire.

Some good advice on slide design is available also available in a number of books such as Beyond Bullet Points by Cliff Atkinson, Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds and Slideology by Nancy Duarte.

BOHS Examination changes

2009-10-21T10:44:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago BOHS announced that from November the 1st all module examinations will have a new format.

The exam will still be in two parts but from 1st November

Part A will consist of 40 short answer questions rather than 60 multiple choice questions. There are pros and cons for candidates, but the biggest advantage is that there will no longer be any negative marking.
Part B will changed so that candidates will be required to answer 5 "micro-essay" questions from a choice of 8.
The pass mark will remain at 50%

Personally I think the change to part A will be beneficial. As there is no negative marking it will be advisable to try to answer all the questions. Currently some candidates hesitate on some questions where they are not 100% confident, even though they may know the answer. And it will only be necessary to get 20 out of 40 right. Another benefit is that as each question is worth 4 marks, some answers may gain partial marks. This will be particularly helpful with calculation questions where marks can be gained providing an appropriate method is used even if the final answer is incorrect due to a slip in the calculation (working will need to be shown to ensure this happens). Currently a small slip results in a negative mark for an incorrect answer even where the candidate understands the principles involved.

For Part B, instead of one long question from a choice of two, candidates will be required to answer 5 out of 8 "micro-essay" questions. BOHS have now released some example questions which can be accessed here.

Given the time available for the exam hasn't changed (2 hours 15 minutes total) with 45 minutes meant to be devoted to Part B, they are expecting no more than 15 minutes to be devoted to answering each of these "micro-essay" questions, so candidates answers will need to be concise, while ensuring that the key points are included. Experience will show how easy it is to achieve this.

Slideology Webinar

2009-10-09T12:00:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I participated in a webinar held by Nancy Duarte of Duarte Design, the author of “Slideology“. I’m a big fan of her book and her approach to presentation design so was keen to listen to what she had to say. I had some computer problems so missed the first twenty or so minutes of the 60 minute session, but it was still worthwhile logging in.

The points made by Nancy really covered the same ground as her book, but it was good to hear them presented “in person”, so to speak. I also found it interesting to look at the slides she’d designed for her presentation. The key points that I took away from the session were:

when preparing for a presentation, stand back from the computer. Presentation design programs like Powerpoint can lead the user and limit their imagination. The brain isn’t digital and its good to use old fashioned tools like paper, note cards and sticky notes to brainstorm and arrange ideas
Don’t try to cram too much on one slide. “Slides are free”. Split ideas over many slides rather than cramming them all on to one.
A good slide designer needs to be a communicator, a graphic analyst and a draughtsman!
Deliver a profound experience to the audience – a “STAR” moment (Something They’ll Always Remember)

Safari Books will be posting a recording of the webinar on the net in the next day or two. I don’t know whether it will be generally available but as I participant I’ll be downloading it and watching the presentation again.

2009-10-03T04:12:00.000-07:00

Conferences ae always a "mixed bag" and this was the case with the REACH meeting held in Brussels on 30 September/1 October. Overall, it was worthwhile attending and I certainly learned more about the requirements of REACH relating to occupational exposures were being implemented in practice. Some of he contributions wee a little too basic, given the nature of the conference and the audience, but the majority were useful.

The key points I took away from the conference were:

there remains a clear conflict between the requirements of REACH and occupational health and safety legislation. The objectives are the same (i.e. protecting the health of workers and others) but there are significant differences in their approaches which could potentially lead to conflicting perceptions of risk and requirements for control.
insufficient thought was given to how the REACH requirements on hazard and exposure assessment could be applied in practice before the legislation was introduced. Companies implementing the requirements are having to develop the methodologies as they go along and the timescales are too tight to allow then to be properly validated before deadlines have to be met.
REACH DNELs(derived no effect levels) are consistently tighter than Occupational Exposure Limits (OELs) due to the major differences in the ways they are established. This can lead to confusion and as DNELs are used in the risk assessment process to develop "risk management measures" (RMMs) it is highly likely that the REACH process will result in tighter controls being specified than those based on a risk assessment using established OELs. Although this problem has been known about for a number of years, it has still not been resolved.
The tools needed for exposure assessment, which is required to allow RMMs to be specified, are still not fully developed and validated.
the Advanced Reach Tool (ART) looks promising and may have wider occupational hygiene applications, but needs to be validated.
there are a number of "first tier" exposure assessment tools (i.e. basic exposure modelling methods). A number were described during the conference. It would have been useful to see them demonstrated, using the different tools for the same substance so that their conclusions could be compared.
modelling techniques are always going to have their limitations, and this is particularly true for the basic "first tier" models. They need to be used by people who understand exposure assessment and these limitations. Ideally they shoul only be used as part of the exposure assessment process. There is a real danger that this won't happen in many cases and that RMMS will end up being specified by inexpeienced people using only the flawed, basic models. From what I saw at the conference the models tend to err "on the side of safety" (just like COSHH Essentials). This may mean that worker health won't be adversely affected but it could have economic consequences for he employers and possibly damage employment.

The occupational hygiene community has the expertise to develop the methodologies, and also has the knowledge and experience to work out how the REACH process could be improved. Unfortunately, I doubt that we have sufficient "clout" to influence the powers that be on this and we are going to have to live with, and try to manage, the consequences once the Regulations start to impact on "downstream users".

REACH - Registration and beyond

2009-09-28T11:53:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow I'll be heading off to Brussels for the meeting on REACH (REACH: Registration and Beyond: Exposure Scenarios and safe handling advice) organised jointly by BOHS and their Dutch sister organisation, NVVA.

The conference focuses on some important issues , including exposure assessment. REACH requires manufacturers and importers of substances and mixtures to develop exposure scenarios and appropriate risk management measures. This is a major requirement which, with the current methodologies available for assessing occupational, environmental and consumer exposures, would be impossible to achieve. Consequently a lot of work is going into developing exposure models and guidance for exposure assessment which manufacturers and importers will be able to use when the target dates for the exposure scenarios approaches.

I'm hoping that the conference will help to bring me up to date on what progress has been made. There are so many factors that affect exposures in the workplace, so it will be interesting to see how far these have been incorporated into the models being developed. Its a big ask.

Stack heights

2009-06-26T04:36:00.001-07:00

When designing and testing local exhaust ventilation systems we need to pay particular attention to the design of the extraction hoods - where the contaminant enters the system. If this isn't right then the system is unlikely to be effective at controlling contaminants. However, this doesn't mean that we shouldn't ensure that other aspects of the system are properly designed.

In many cases the system will exhaust outdoors and its then important to ensure that any contaminants remaining in the airstream are dispersed effectively so that they do not re-enter the building. This means that they shouldn't be located too close to any air intakes, vents or windows. It is also particularly important that the stack is high enough. A good "rule of thumb" to follow is that the stack should be at leas one third the height of the building (i.e. it should release at a height 1.33 times the building height). The stacks on the laboratory building shown in the picture above meet this criterion. There are plenty of others out there that don't! Here's a few.

Terminolgy

2009-06-19T05:38:00.000-07:00

When you've been working in a particular profession for a while its easy to forget how confusing terminology can be. I find that although we take for granted what is meant by "local" and "general" ventilation, the meaning is not necessarily obvious to someone new to occupational hygiene or to non-specialists, such as managers and workers in industry.

"Local exhaust ventilation" is used to describe extraction systems that extract contaminants close to the source, thereby preventing dispersion into the workplace. Yet although most people would probably interpret "local" as meaning "close to", I don't think that "local ventilation" is necessarily understood to mean that capture occurs at source. I've seen lots of poorly designed systems, including fans located in walls a fair distance from the source classed as "local extraction". Similarly the term "general ventilation" is rather vague and I'm not convinced that most people understand what we mean by this - i.e. the use of extraction to dilute contaminants in the ambient workplace air.

There are also some situations where the terminology breaks down. For example, in a walk in spray booth contaminated air is extracted from the whole room, not from near the source. The worker inside the booth is not fully protected as he/she is still located within the contaminant cloud. From his / her perspective this is not local extraction. Yet, at the same time, it is something more than what we would normally class as "general ventilation".

To overcome these problems, perhaps the use of alternative terms such as source ventilation, room ventilation and dilution ventilation would be better.

Plants aren't always good for you!

2009-06-18T10:09:00.000-07:00

I spotted this article in the New Scientist.

I've often come across the view that using plants is a good way of dealing with pollutants in the indoor environment (see my previous post here). Although there is some merit in this, it isn't always true that plants are beneficial and the research findings described in the New Scientist article shows how plants can actually increase pollution.

All living organisms process, produce and emit chemicals. Sometimes these are beneficial and sometimes they are harmful. Just because something is "natural" doesn't mean that it is harmless. Botulinum toxin is a "natural" chemical - and its extremely toxic.

Occuaptional Hygiene in developing economies

2009-05-12T00:29:00.000-07:00

I found this presentation on Slideshare

Although I'm not so complacent to think that control of asbestos is perfect here in the UK, I think it would be unlikely to find anything quite as blatant as the situation shown on these slides.

I guess that this example illustrates the difference in standards between "developed" and "developing" economies. Some commentators argue that the health, safety standards required by legislation are driving work away from Western Europe and the US to countries such as Turkey, Eastern Europe, India, the Far East, Latin America and that we should lower standards over here. But this argument has been used many times in the past - only with different countries being cited (in the past it was Spain, Portugal, Greece etc). There will always be somewhere where standards and wages are lower. The standards adopted in the developed countries are helping to protect workers' health - and uncontrolled use of hazardous substances, such as the example in the slides, needs to be addressed in the developing world, and will be in due course as workers there become more organised.

In order to improve standards, professional expertise will be needed, including occupational hygiene. Although these skills could be provided by hygienists based in Europe, the USA and Australia, this is not a solution in the long term. The best approach is to develop the profession in the countries where occupational hygiene skills are required. The International Modules being developed in partnership by a number of occupational hygiene organisations, including BOHS and the Australian Institute of Occupational Hygienists should, hopefully provide a foundation for this.

IARC review of Category 1 carcinogens

2009-05-09T09:52:00.000-07:00

In March, 2009, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) reassessed the carcinogenicity of metals, arsenic, dusts, and fibres previously classified as “carcinogenic to humans” (Group 1) and to identify additional tumour sites and mechanisms of carcinogenesis. Their findings are published in:

A review of human carcinogens—Part C: metals, arsenic, dusts, and fibres : The Lancet Oncology

Key points from this article include:

Metals

The classification of beryllium and its compounds, cadmium and its compounds, chromium (VI) compounds, and nickel compounds as “carcinogenic to humans” (Group 1) was reaffirmed .
Arsenic and inorganic arsenic compounds was classified as “carcinogenic to humans” (Group 1).

Asbestos

Epidemiological evidence has increasingly shown an association of all forms of asbestos (chrysotile, crocidolite, amosite, tremolite, actinolite, and anthophyllite) with an increased risk of lung cancer and mesothelioma.
Sufficient evidence is now available to show that asbestos also causes cancer of the larynx and of the ovary.
The Working Group classified the evidence for an association between asbestos and colorectal cancer as “limited”.

Silica

The Working Group reaffirmed the carcinogenicity of crystalline silica dust as Group 1. An increased risk of lung cancer was observed across various industries and processes.

Wood dust

Wood dust was reaffirmed as “carcinogenic to humans”.
Epidemiological studies report a strong association between exposure to wood dust and development of sinonasal cancer.
There is strong evidence of carcinogenicity for hardwood dusts.
For softwood dust there is a smaller riskthan for hardwood dust

Leather dust

A particularly high risk of sinonasal adenocarcinoma was noted among workers with the highest exposure to leather dust.
Leather dust was classified as “carcinogenic to humans” (Group 1).

Music lessons for conference organisers

2009-05-07T11:41:00.000-07:00

I came across this on aWordPress blog http://returnon.wordpress.com/

I think the speaker makes some good points in his short presentation. Conference organisers everywhere take note!

Parrots or professionals?

2009-05-05T11:04:00.000-07:00

The following article by the philosopher AC Grayling appeared in The Guardian on Saturday:

Knowledge and genius

I think it makes some very valid points which are relevant to education and particularly so with respect to the training of professionals.

In the article, Grayling states:

“there is no automatic connection between knowledge and intelligence“.

I agree wholeheartedly with this. Simply being able to reel off facts isn’t proof of ability to perform a task. Even a parrot can be trained to reel off lists of facts. Yet there is too much reliance on rote learning in the occupational hygiene profession where trainees are required to learn masses of facts for the BOHS modules, while there is relatively little testing of their ability to apply the knowledge to solving problems.

An enormous amount of information is available to us in the modern world - and it continues to expand exponentially. It is not only unrealistic to expect a professional to absorb and remember a mass of facts, it is, in my opinion, poor practice. It is more important to know how and where to locate information than to memorise it - and then to be able to use it to analyse and solve problems.

Tunnel vision

2009-04-17T00:51:00.000-07:00

I went to look at a specialist manufacturing facility this week where they produce and handle small amounts if a highly potent compound. I've been asked to carry out a COSHH assessment for the process. As they weren't manufacturing I was given a "guided tour" of the process and was able to take a good look around at the facility itself and the control measures in place. My discussions with the production personnel concentrated on the control of the potent substance itself. Other substances used during manufacture were mentioned, but only in passing. Some of these presented health hazards (although they were clearly not as harmful as the potent substances), but the personnel were so focused on the potent that they didn't really make any comments on the hazards and risks from these other substances and the measures used to control them.

It's very easy to get "tunnel vision" with processes like this where a potent substance is being handled. What I mean by this is that so much attention is devoted to the main hazard that possible risks from other substances or agents can be forgotten. This can lead to problems if some of those risks are significant and aren't controlled. Although its clearly very important to ensure that everyone is aware of the risks from the main potent material, and that a very high standard of control is applied, attention also needs to be paid to other hazards to make sure that any risks they present are properly controlled as well.

Sir Humphry and the Age of Wonder

2009-04-14T11:34:00.000-07:00

I think its important that people working in a particular field of expertise should be more than one dimensional and cultivate interests in other areas. I've always had a passion for history, literature and reading in general. A long time favourite book is Richard Holmes' "Footsteps", a book which combines biography, travel and autobiography. His biography of Shelley is also a favourite. So when I heard that a new book of his was due out that focused on the development of science in the "romantic age" I bought a copy hot off the press - even though it was in hardback, as I didn't want to wait the extra months it would take for a paperback edition to be published (mind you a half price offer made it even more tempting!).

As in Footsteps, Holmes covers the life of more than one subject and also wanders off down sidetracks related to the main theme. One of the main topics is the life of Sir Humphrey Davy. I've always had an interest in this pioneering chemist so was keen to read this section of the book. He is best known for his invention of the safety lamp and he is also credited with the discovery (or isolation) of sodium, potassium and barium. But there is a lot more to his life.

Humphrey Davy came from humble beginnings in Cornwall, being born in Penzance in 1778. In 1794 he was apprenticed to John Bingham Borlase, a Penzance surgeon, but in 1798 was taken on to Thomas Bedooes to work as a laboratory assistant in the latter's newly established Pneumatic Institution in Bristol. It was here that Davy was able to develop his talents as an experimental scientist, before finally moving to London in 1801 to work at the Royal Institution.

There's a tendency these days to separate arts and science - but Davy moved in both worlds, as did many other prominent artists and scientists at the time. He was a friend of Wordsworth and Coleridge who took an interest in his work, as did others, including Shelley and Keats - Davy even wrote poetry himself. Men of ideas were interested in more than one sphere of knowledge and culture.

As an occupational hygienist it was particularly interesting to read about Davy's experiments with gases in Bristol. He explored the effects of nitrous oxide and carbon monoxide by conducting inhalation studies on himself. On more than one occasion he came close to death by exposing himself to high concentrations of carbon monoxide.

One of the things I admire about Davy was his invention of the miner's safety lamp. Although this is surrounded by controversy (not least disputes about who first developed the lamp with George Stevenson) Davy was largely motivated by a desire to save lives (although the search for glory was a factor too, it has to be said) and he refused to take out a patent, even though strongly encouraged to do so. He wanted his lamp to be freely available. Sadly, although the lamp was intended to save lives it has been said that it actually caused the death of more men because the mine owners used the lamp as an excuse to send their workers into more dangerous workings. However, the ones really responsible for this were the greedy mine owners. Davy cannot be blamed for the misuse of his invention by others.

Although he had radical tendencies in his youth, he moved to the right in older age as he became part of the establishment (sadly this is too often the case). He also had a tendency to seek glory and credit for inventions and could be jealous of others who worked with him - notably Michael Faraday who started out as Davy's assistant. Nevertheless there is much about him to admire and Holmes, who is clearly sympathetic towards his subject, has written an educative and entertaining account of his life. And although the book as a whole is excellent, it was worth shelling out for a hardback book for this alone.

Shipping can be bad for health

2009-04-10T04:53:00.001-07:00

I guess we usually think of shipping as more "environmentally friendly" form of transport compared to aircraft and motor vehicles. However, there was an interesting article in the Guardian today about the health risks of emissions from shipping.

Ships burn fuel oil - one of the "dirtier" fuels, containing high levels of sulphur. So emissions of sulphur dioxide are significant. The heat of the combustion process also generates another toxic gas - nitrogen dioxide. Both of these acid gases have harmful effects on human health and can also damage other living organisms. Particulate pollutants are also emitted.

Key points in the article include

"just 15 of the world's biggest ships may now emit as much pollution as all the world's 760m cars"
"pollution from the world's 90,000 cargo ships leads to 60,000 deaths a year in the US alone and costs up to $330bn per year in health costs from lung and heart diseases."
1,000 Danish people die prematurely each year because of shipping pollution and shipping emissions cost the Danish health service almost £5bn a year, mainly treating cancers and heart problems.

Dealing with these health related problems will not be easy. Control over shipping is notoriously difficult as a ship isn't based in one country. Concerted international action will be needed which can be easily circumvented by countries which allow ships to register under a "flag of convenience"

The economics of childhood lead poisoning

2009-04-07T01:40:00.000-07:00

Following on from my post on lead yesterday, I stumbled on the following article

Childhood Lead Poisoning: Conservative Estimates of the Social and Economic Benefits of Lead Hazard Control

Published on the Environmental Health Perspectives website.

The study involved undertaking a cost-benefit analysis which quantified the social and economic
benefits to households of lead paint hazard control balanced against the investments needed to minimize exposure to these hazards. The conclusions of the study are

"there are substantial returns to investing in lead hazard control, particularly targeted at early intervention in communities most likely at risk. Given the high societal costs of inaction, lead hazard control appears to be well worth the price."

The analysis is really only relevant to the USA as the economic factors, which include the costs of health care, costs of education, earnings, and taxes are only applicable there. Nevertheless I'm sure that a similar analysis undertaken in other developed countries would reach similar conclusions. Hopefully the findings are convincing enough to influence regulators. However, in the developing world different conclusions would probably be reached if the need to control lead was considered only from an economic perspective. Is the health of children there any less important even if the balance in the cost-benefit equation is different?

Health is not just an economic issue. Although economic arguments can help to persuade governments of a need to take action, the right to good health goes beyond that. Ethical considerations must surely carry more weight.

Hypothermia

2009-04-07T01:33:00.000-07:00

Working outdoors in Alaska

A recent posting on the Catlin Arctic survey blog discusses the effects of working in temperatures of below -40 degrees centigrade.

Hypothermia is the result of general cooling of the body below 35 degrees C. Early symptoms include tiredness, muscular weakness and confusion. Below 30 to 32 degrees shivering stops and unconsciousness can occur. When shivering stops there is a rapid decrease of body temperature. Death may occur at where the core temperature is around or below 28 degrees C.

The body produces heat and the harder you are working the more heat is generated. At low temperatures we are likely to lose heat to the environment, the extent of this heat loss, however, will be influenced by the amount and type of clothing being worn. Chemical protective clothing can present a particular problem. Even in cold environments it is possible to suffer heat stress and strain where heavy work is being undertaken and impervious clothing is worn which does not allow enough of the heat produced to escape. This is particularly relevant to chemical workers and emergency response personnel.

The Catlin team are pulling heavy sledges of 110 kilos each an average of 6 nautical miles a day. Their clothing is of a high standard in terms of the insulation it provides, but insulation alone is not enough to prevent hypothermia in such extreme conditions as they are experiencing. as the team Doctor notes

“All clothing can do is slow down the process of losing heat. “The only way they can keep the hypothermia at bay is to keep moving and to keep eating”.

Handel exhibition suggests his poison was the lead in his wine

2009-04-04T00:18:00.000-07:00

I spotted an interesting article in the Guardian last week, reporting on a theory that the composer Handel suffered from lead poisoning

Lead acetate used to be used to sweeten wine and this is suggested as the source of lead exposure for the composer. I've even heard it suggested that the fall of the Roman empire could be attributed to the same reason as they, apparently, were very fond of sweet wine and used to add lead acetate to it. There is a useful summary of the history of lead exposure here on the USEPA website

Lead and its compounds are highly toxic. The main concerns are its chronic effects (due to long term exposure) particularly as it is accumulates in the body, remaining there for a long time after exposure.

Its principle effects include

anaemia,
irritability, tiredness,
effects on the nervous system leading to muscle weakness and, in extreme case, paralysis,
kidney and liver damage
gastrointestinal disturbances
effects on IQ, particularly in children
It is a teratogen, that is it can affect the unborn child when the mother is exposed, leading to spontaneous abortion, still birth or decreased birth weight,
fertility problems in males

Inorganic lead compounds are are also classified as "probably carcinogenic to humans" by
the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC)

For a thorough summary of its effects see the document Information on lead from the UK Health Protection Agency

Exposure to lead in the developed world has fallen dramatically due to increased awareness, stringent legislation in the workplace (such as the Control of Lead at Work Regulations in the UK), environmental regulation and the reduction of lead in products to which the general public could be exposed. The banning of lead in petrol being a particularly important measure. Consequently cases of lead poisoning are relatively rare.

However, it is likely that lead exposure is increasing in the developing world as lead and its compounds are still widely used in manufacturing and with the rapid growth of industry in India, China and other countries it is likely that the exposure of workers and the general public will increase. Control measures to reduce the exposure of workers and minimise emissions to the environmental are likely to be considerably less stringent in newly developing countries than in the developed world. A report by the World Health Organisation discusses these issues and concludes that:

"Public health measures should continue to be directed to the reduction and prevention of exposure to lead by reducing the use of the metal and its compounds and by minimizing lead-containing emissions that result in human exposures."

Consultancy fined after inaccurate asbestos survey

2009-03-31T03:09:00.000-07:00

From a recent HSE Press Release

"Bestoff Services Ltd of Chorleywood, Hertfordshire pleaded guilty to breaching section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. They were fined £3,000, ordered to pay costs of £2091.70 and a victim surcharge of £15.

The company carried out an asbestos survey on a site at Unit 27, Nuffield Way, Abingdon in February 2008 and reported that the site contained no asbestos. Two members of staff began work on the site the following month and part of their job involved removing panels of fibrous board."

Full details are available at:

Company fined after inaccurate asbestos survey leads to exposure

A lot of money has been made by companies carrying out asbestos surveys in recent years - not all of these surveys have been done competently. Occasionally someone gets caught out - but I'm sure a lot don't.

The HSE has tried to regulate asbestos consultancy companies by insisting on accreditation. I have never been convinced that this was the right way to address the problem. Some companies who are competent to carry out surveys and have the professional integrity to ensure that they are done properly, but who don't carry out asbestos work exclusively, find the cost of accreditation prohibitive and so pull out of the market. On the other hand, there is no guarantee that that companies who can jump all the hurdles created by UKAS and are prepared to carry the costs involved, will carry out the surveys competently in practice or that they adopt professional standards with respect to reporting their findings.

Fortunately, in the case concerned, the client company were interested in their employees' health and took the appropriate action once they became suspicious.

Frostbite

2009-03-25T12:42:00.000-07:00

There's a good summary of the effects of frostbite, complete with some gruesome photographs, on the Catlin Arctic expedition website. Worth a look.

Green buildings?

2009-03-25T12:00:00.000-07:00

Kamal Meattle's talk from the recent TED conference has recently been posted on the TED website.

I've already embedded the slides from the talk on a previous post.

The idea of using plants to clean up indoor air has been around for quite a while now. This talk is about a project which utilised three different plants in a building in New Dehli. The results sound interesting but both the talk and slidedeck give relatively few details. I'd like to find out more but there isn't any further detail on the websites referenced by TED and in the slides. A quick "Google" hasn't turned up anything and I've not been able to locate any relevant papers in the public domain. So I'll have to reserve judgment on how effective these plants have been until I've had chance to look into this in more detail.

"To sleep, perchance to dream"

2009-03-11T14:12:00.000-07:00

I've been following the Catlin Arctic survey blog for updates on the expedition to the Arctic to measure the thickness of the sea ice. As well as the environmental perspective there are a number of aspects of the expedition which are of interest to occupational hygienists. Their blog and website includes information on dealing with exposure to cold including the clothing they are using and their experience of living in a cold environment.

There was an interesting post on their blog today written by the expedition's sleep analyst, Mary Morrell. This might seem like a rather strange job, but lack of sleep and disturbed sleep patterns can lead to ill health. To quote from the blog post

"Insufficient sleep (usually thought of as less than 7 hours per night) causes tiredness and fatigue. Alertness is reduced and thought processes slow down. In particular, sleep deprivation leads to slower reaction times."

In the workplace this is relevant for shift workers and personnel working unusual shift patterns and the impact on their health isn't usually considered during workplace risk assessments. So the experience gained during the expedition could have some lessons for us and it will be worth keeping an eye on the blog for any further posts on this topic.

Whats wrong with what we eat?

2009-03-03T11:13:00.000-08:00

This video, which I found on the TED site, might be useful for my students on the Open University course T210 (Environmental control and public health) who are going to be starting the block on Food Processing and Distribution in a couple of weeks time.

It raises a few of the points covered in the block and would be a nice gentle introduction to supplement the course written materials, particularly as we don't have a tutorial scheduled during the study time for this block

Nanoparticles

2009-03-02T08:21:00.000-08:00

I came across the following video slideshow by Andrew Maynard (2020science.org), a researcher in nanotechnology. It's a nice, gentle introduction to nanoparticles and their properties.

Nanotechnology - Managing the Small Stuff, Explained from Andrew Maynard on Vimeo.

The key points he makes about these new materials are

the particles are small
they are "strange" - they don't behave how you might expect and the properties of a substance manufactured or created as a nanoparticle can be different than the same substance in the form of larger particles
they are "sophisticated" - in that they can be used to manufacture complex products with advanced uses

There are inevitable concerns about the toxicity of nanoparticles and the risks from exposure, both from an occupational and environmental context.

the small size of the particles means that they can, potentially, be absorbed easily into the body by inhalation AND skin contact (there is evidence that some particles can be absorbed through intact skin)
nanoparticles are much more likely to be absorbed into the blood via the lungs than their larger cousins. Once absorbed they can make their to other organs where they may be able to exert toxic effects.
their small size also means that they can be potentially absorbed into cells where larger particles of the same substance would not
the "strangeness" of nanoparticles means that it can be difficult to predict what their toxicological properties will be, even where there is a good understanding of the toxicity of larger particles of the same substance
In some cases, effects such as cancer are due to the physical form of particles and their Small size (aka asbestos fibres) rather than their chemical nature

It is too early to now whether any of these concerns are likely to be borne out in practice. However, its an area where a lot of research is taking place.

2009-02-27T09:34:00.000-08:00

Another week another course finished. This time it was M101, "health effects of hazardous substances".

As usual, the exam was disappointing, in that the questions were not all of a high standard. One of the part B questions in particular, was of concern. Although the overall question was OK - it asked about the hazardous effects of four relatively important substances, it also asked about how the substances could be "detected" required the candidates to list the relevant occupational exposure limits.

First of all what was meant by "detected"? Do they mean how do the senses detect the substances, how they can be detected by biological monitoring or how they can be detected by air sampling? It is not clear at all. And if they mean any of these aspects, they are outside the scope of the syllabus. An example of poor question writing.

I also think that expecting candidates to list exposure limits is unreasonable. For a start, there is nothing in the syllabus that requires it (limits aren't even mentioned). If the examiners do think it is fair (I assume they do given that they set the question), then it would imply that the candidates must know all the limits in EH40 as there is nothing to indicate that only a small selection need to be memorised. This is not just unreasonable but I would contend that it is bad practice to attempt to remember the contents of EH40. First of all there are more important things that need to be held inside our limited memory banks. Secondly limits change and I think that it is much better to encourage hygienists to look them up and ensure that the most current one is applied. Its easy enough to do this - especially as the main reference source is the pdf file posted on the HSE website (now that they don't publish a hard copy every year).

We should be training candidates about what limits are, where to find them and how to locate them - but not expecting them to memorise them.

Featured on Slideshare

2009-02-26T12:11:00.000-08:00

I just received an e-mail telling me that my presentation Pollution And Human Health is currently being showcased on the Slideshare 'Health & Medicine' page.

Pollution And Human Health

2009-02-24T12:29:00.001-08:00

This is a slideshow of my lecture to MSc students at Manchester Unversity

Pollution And Human Health

View more presentations from mikeslater. (tags: pollution environment)

Intro To Occupational Hygiene

2009-02-19T06:25:00.001-08:00

This presentation was originally intended as an introduction to occupational hygiene for oil industry personnel. I've modified it slightly so its more generally applicable (although it still has an oil industry "slant").

Intro To Occupational Hygiene

View more presentations from mikeslater.

Introduction To Toxicology

2009-02-18T12:12:00.001-08:00

This is an introductory presentation on toxicology.

I'll be using a slightly expanded version on day 1 of the M101 course that we are running in Chester next week.

Introduction To Toxicology

View more presentations from mikeslater.

Cupola furnace

2009-02-18T09:08:00.000-08:00

I took this picture recently of a cupola furnace at a small foundry. Scrap metal and coal are loaded into the top of the furnace and the coal set alight to melt the scrap and produce molten metal which is used to manufacture castings.

As there is insufficient oxygen for complete combustion, carbon monoxide is generated. Hydrogen sulphide can also be produced due to the presence of sulphur in the coal. Both of these gases are highly toxic and have to be extracted to minimise the risk to the operators. Some of the gases dissolve in the molten metal and can gas off as it cools, so there can be some risk during the casting operation itself.

This is a good example of how hazardous substances can be generated during a process and which are often forgotten by inexperienced or untrained people carrying out health risk assessments.

A number of years ago I got involved with a company (NOT the one shown in the picture, I should point out) where a worker had been exposed to high concentrations of carbon monoxide when inspecting the furnace when a leak occurred. The company concerned had employed a safety consultant to carry out COSHH assessments for them. Unfortunately he based his assessments on the material data sheets for the substances bought by the company. There were no data sheets for carbon monoxide or hydrogen sulphide as they aren't bought in so there was no mention of two of the most serious risks in he foundry - i.e. potential exposure to the gases. There were other hazards he didn't consider too - metal fume created during melting and casting and exposure to respirable crystalline silica during "fettling" (the grinding of the finished castings to remove rough edges) - because again, these substances are created by the process and are not bought in.

Although most people seem to think that COSHH requires an assessment to be carried out for substances, this isn't actually the case - the assessment should actually cover the "risks created by work" where workers can be exposed to hazardous substances. Its best to start by considering the process and what workers and others can be exposed to - both bought in substances and any that can be generated by the process itself. Quite often it is the latter that present the most significant risks, as is the case with the cupola furnace and other foundry operatons. Listing the substances bought in and using the supplier's data sheets as the basis of the assessment is likely to lead to significant risks being missed.

Note: COSHH is an acronym for the British Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002

Evaluation

2009-02-16T10:48:00.000-08:00

There's a management cliche that used to be quite popular a few years ago - "you can't manage what you can't measure". I'm afraid I couldn't agree less!

This may seem strange coming from an occupational hygienist, particularly as where anyone knows anything about what we do they assume we spend our time making measurements of dust, fumes, vapours noise and other hazardous agents. In fact evaluation is only part of what an occupational hygienist does and even then measurement is only one technique that we use to evaluate risk. Our prime objective is not to carry out measurements, but to control risk. In order to do that we need to know which hazardous agents present in the workplace are likely to present a significant risk - so risk evaluation is an essential prerequisite to control - but it is a means to an end, not an end in itself.

As many workplace hazards are not visible to the naked eye it s not always easy to recognise where a significant risk is present. In these situations, measuring worker exposure to the contaminants can help us to decisions on risk. However, sometimes it is obvious that a problem exists. Just take a look at the picture above. Its pretty obvious that the worker is exposed to a high concentration of fume and that improved controls are needed o protect his health (and possibly the health of others n the workplace). In such cases its better putting our time and effort into solving the problem rather than quantifying it.

Life at the Extremes

2009-02-13T12:46:00.000-08:00

I was running the BOHS module on Thermal environment, non-ionising radiation and lighting last week. That's one hell of a course to teach. So many topics to cover and most of the attendees hadn't much experience of them.

For anyone wanting to know more about heat and cold stress, this book by Frances Ashcroft is a nice gentle introduction. It is very well written, easy to read and explains the basic principles very well with some good real life examples.

As well as heat and cold, it covers other challenging environments that might be of interest to occupational hygienists and physicians - high altitude and hyperbaric (high pressure).

Training professionals

2009-02-06T09:24:00.000-08:00

Its been a tough week. I've been running BOHS module M201 this week with 15 delegates, none of whom have had any experience of the topics covered. The problem with the course is that there is so much to cover, particularly when the concepts are new. And as I discussed in a previous post quite a bit of the material we have to cover is not really relevant to modern practice.

M201 isn't the only BOHS module where we have this problem. Most of them have too much content for a one week course where the exam is taken at the end of the week. This is compounded by the examinations which concentrates on testing the candidates' memory rather than understanding of principles and their ability to apply them.

The modules are intended to allow trainee occupational hygienists and other people carrying out some aspect of occupational hygiene as part of their job to develop knowledge and skills they need to carry out the job competently. This requires more than just knowledge of facts.

"Bloom's taxonomy" is a well known concept used by educationalists. It was developed in 1956, by a group of educational psychologists led by Benjamin Bloom. Its a way of looking at the different types of learning, setting them out in a hierarchy with six levels, often set out in the form of a pyramid. The lowest level is "knowledge", involving learning facts which are then recalled or recognised and the highest level, is "evaluation", where judgements are made about the validity and quality of information.

The way the BOHS modules are currently set up we are mainly developing and testing knowledge with much less emphasis on the higher level skills. I would contend that in the modern world of work professionals need to absorb fewer facts and develop the ability to find the information they need, understand it (i.e. comprehensive) and then be able to apply it and use it effectively (i.e. application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation).

There are two dimensions to knowledge - breadth and depth. During a short duration course there is only so much we can expect learners to absorb. In simple terms, if we are aiming from breadth we can't expect knowledge to be too deep. Its only reasonable to expect depth of knowledge in a narrow range of topics. The BOHS syllabii require coverage of a lot of topics - i.e. breadth, but the exam questions are such that deep knowledge of each topic is required. This is a problems that needs to be addressed.

As I see it, there are a number of specific problems that need to be addressed. Currently, the module structure means that trainee operational hygienists are expected to have deep knowledge of:

health effects of substances that are rarely, if ever, encountered in practice. How many hygienists in modern industry need to know that a symptom of excessive exposure to vanadium pentoxide is a green tongue? How many of us have actually seen one? Do we really need to know that arsene exposure can lead to “port wine urine”? How many of us have ever seen “wrist drop” caused by excessive exposure to lead? Just think of how much exposure to lead would be required for that to happen. These are things that candidates taking BOHS exams are expected to know. They are easy questions to write, but are they really relevant?

sampling methods for a wide range of specific substances - even though this information can easily be looked up in the standard methods which have now been made freely available on the Internet by HSE and NIOSH. I think it is reasonable to expect operational hygienists to be familiar with the basic methods, but they should be encouraged to check specific details in the written method rather than rely on their memory with the consequent risk of making a mistake,
details of analytical procedures. A long time ago the person taking a sample may have performed the analysis. With the exception of asbestos, that is rarely the case, yet our examination system persists in requiring trainee operational hygienists to learn details on analytical techniques. I can see the value in knowing what methods are appropriate for the main classes of substances we have to sample, but not for knowing the specific procedures adopted by the analyst,

a large number of equations – is this really necessary in the real world of work? If an equation is needed for a calculation it is easy enough to look it up (if necessary BOHS provide handbook of common equations that can fit in a pocket or electronic version that could be downloaded onto a laptop, PDA or mobile phone.) They need to be able to select the appropriate equation (not as easy as it seems) and be able to use it. Wouldn't it be better to test that than the ability to memorise it. Most colleges and other bodies (including the Institute of Acoustics) provide equation sheets for exams these days.

For some exams candidates are expected to be able to remember specific exposure limits for chemicals, and details from other standards (including remembering exposure limit values for non-ionising radiation and the TLVs for heat stress) and other similar information such as the wording of R phrases. All of these things can be easily located and looked up. Knowing where to find this information and being able to understand it is important but why does a trainee hygienist need to memorise it? In reality it will be forgotten a few days after the exam unless the information is used regularly. Again, surely it is more appropriate to expect the trainee to learn how to find information, understand it and use it.

In my working life I've seen major changes in the ability to access technical information. 30 years ago everything was printed and to obtain information you had to have access to books, journals, other documents. This meant you couldn't carry around information easily and important information which needed to be accessed quickly had to be memorised. Today things are different. Its much easier to access to information via the Internet or electronic documents that can be kept on mobile devices such as laptops, PDAs and even mobile phones. In addition, the amount of information we need to refer to continues to grow. Human memory has limited capacity, and our knowledge will rarely be completely up to date.

Currently we expect trainee hygienists to memorise large amounts of information and be able to reproduce it. There is little emphasis on interpretation, application and the higher level cognitive skills. In my view it would be much better if we changed our emphasis to a new approach where we required trainees to be able to :

understand basic principles

have knowledge of a smaller number of key facts

know what information sources are available and which are relevant

know how to search for information

be able to interpret the information.

To support this the BOHS and Faculty could look at

providing guidance on information sources

making available reference material such as key equations and principles in a handbook/manual, probably in an electronic format that could be downloaded and which would be relatively easy to keep up to date.

Plants and indoor air quality

2009-02-04T10:27:00.000-08:00

The TED conference has just started in California. It would be nice to be there enjoying some warm sunshine rather than shivering in the cold. At least Wigan hasn't been affected by the snow which has caused London and other parts of the country to grind to a halt!

I noticed the following posted on the TED blog - the slide show from a talk that took place today.

How to Grow Your Own Fresh Air - TED 2009 Talk

View more presentations from jaymeattle. (tags: plants greenhouse)

Plants are often proposed as a way of improving the indoor environment and there have been claims before about how they can remove air pollutants in "sick buildings". They can also, possibly, have other benefits by raising humidity in dry buildings, particularly in the winter in Britain when damp cold air is brought into the building and warmed up causing the relative humidity to plummet with consequent problems due to dry eyes, sore throats etc. The claims made in this presentation are pretty dramatic. I'll be interested to watch the video when its eventually posted on the TED site and would like to see more detail of their results to see whether the claims are justified.

(TED is an annual conference that defines its mission as "ideas worth spreading". The lectures, called TED Talks, cover a wide range of topics. The talks from past events are gradually being published via their website from where they can be viewed directly or downloaded)

Thermal stress

2009-02-03T10:56:00.000-08:00

I'm absolutely shattered this evening. I've just got home after finishing day 2 of a BOHS module course - M201 covering thermal environment, lighting and non-ionising radiation. Its a lot of content to cover. I've had to try to compress thermal environment into two days for an audience who have had little previous involvement with the subject.

As usual with BOHS modules there is far too much content. It is particularly frustrating in that the thermal environment section of the syllabus includes a lot of material which is well out of date, does not have much relevance to current practice and is of historical interest only.

Covering some of the older, outdated material can reinforce understanding by showing how modern approaches evolved, but that is a luxury when time is limited. It means that I can't really devote enough time to teaching and reinforcing the material that is really relevant to today's practice. It also means that I haven't much time available for practical exercises that would really reinforce learning. The outdated material needs to be weeded out so that proper emphasis can be given to the information and skills that hygienists need to carry out their jobs.

I'm afraid this is par for the course with BOHS modules.

Making training stick

2009-02-01T06:01:00.000-08:00

I've just finished reading "Made to stick" by Chip and Dan Heath - a book widely recommended on various blogs on presentation and management. Its about how to get ideas to "stick", and the principles outlined can be applied in various contexts, but the one I'm interested in is teaching and training.The core idea in the book is that to make ideas stick the message need to have a number of attributes, summed up by the acronym SUCCES. They should be

Simple

Unexpected

Concrete

Credible

Emotional

use Stories

The last of these is particularly important as stories usually involve concrete examples, can get to the core of the idea and can be framed to include unexpected and emotional aspects. The Heath's practice what they preach with stories (lots of examples) forming the basis for the book.The occupational hygiene profession is not very good at making things "sticky" - the very name we use for our discipline is perhaps a good example of this!

Although we often can work out what our core ideas and principles are, we are not always very good at using the other aspects discussed by the Heath's to put them across to an uninterested audience we are trying to influence, whether management, workers or regulators. For example, I was discussing the COSHH principles of good control practice with Adrian Hirst a few days ago, and we both agreed that while the principles are good and sensible, they are anything but "sticky" and its perhaps not surprising that very few people, including many general safety practitioners, have not really heard of them. From a training and teaching perspective, making ideas "sticky" is important if the learners are to remember what you've tried to get across, and the SUCCES principles can be applied to make the instruction more memorable.

Making things "simple" doesn't mean "dumbing down" but making sure ideas, however complex, are put across in a way that can be understood by learners new to the principle. Things that seem obvious to an expert need to be carefully explained. This can be made easier if the ideas are illustrated by concrete examples. Every good trainer will have "war stories" that can be used to illustrate application and implementation of the principles. Case studies too are types of stories and can be based on concrete examples and are a good way of getting the learners to think through the principles. The stories and case studies clearly need to be credible if they are to be seen as relevant by the learners.

The idea of using emotion might seem a bit airy fairy but is really about making the ideas relevant to the learners by showing them that what they are learning is relevant to them, either as individuals or as part of a group. Unexpectedness is probably the most difficult principle to apply - I think that it can only be used sparingly - you can't make everything unexpected. However its a good way of waking up the audience and grabbing attention and can be particularly useful during awareness type training, particularly where the audience might be uninterested, and can help to get the emotional "buy in" you are trying to achieve.

One thing isn't covered in the book, which is particularly important in making training and teaching "sticky". The book focuses on getting a message across and making it stick by presenting people with information i.e. by presenting the information verbally or in writing. Learning isn't just about listening and reading- quite the contrary. People learn best by doing - sometimes finding things out for themselves or reinforcing the points put across in presentations and written material. Perhaps some of the ideas in the book could be applied to practical exercises. As I've already mentioned above, they can be applied to designing effective case studies.

So all in all, a useful book. The ideas it contains have certainly stuck with me!

When the "right" glove is the wrong glove

2009-01-26T14:35:00.000-08:00

There are many situations where people at work can have direct skin contact with chemicals, particularly hand contact. It is often taken for granted that tasks such as cleaning will involve wiping down with cloths, or something similar, soaked with a solvent or other chemical which are held in the hand. Many of these chemicals can cause skin problems or can be absorbed through the skin contributing to the overall body burden. The panacea in such cases is to provide chemical protective gloves. The trouble is, this can create more problems than it solves.

With any personal protective equipment it is important to understand the limitations and know how and when the protection is likely to fail, because when it does it "fails to danger" - there is no back up. In the case of gloves, and other chemical protective clothing, failure can occur in three main ways

penetration -where there is physical damage to the material resulting in a physical breach in the protection
degradation - where the glove material is attacked by the chemical or is affected by other factors such as sunlight
permeation - where the molecules of the chemical work their way through the molecules that make up the glove material

The time taken for the chemical to permeate through a particular glove or garment is known as the breakthrough time. This is dependent on both the permeation rate (the rate at which the particular chemical permeates through the material, which depends on the type of polymer used) and the thickness of the garment. The thicker the glove material the greater the chemical resistance. But thick gloves can impair grip, dexterity, and safety.

Many chemicals, particularly common solvents such as trichloroethylene, toluene and xylene pass through most common polymer materials very rapidly. Depnding on the glove material and design, the breakthrough time is can be as low as 10 minutes and rarely greater than two hours. If gloves have to be used, it's important to make sure that the "right" one has been selected - one that will offer appropriate protection against the chemical of concern. The breakthrough time gives the effective usage time for the glove which should be changed on ths basis.

Too often, even where appropriate gloves have been selected the maximum usage time is not specified. Workers continue to wear the gloves until they spot obvious faults. However, this presents a problem as that the user will not know that breakthrough has occured. Its easier to spot degradation (although this often ill only happen after breakthrough has occured). Large tears and holes can e spotted fairly easily, but small "pinpricks" may not be noticeable.

Often workers continue to use gloves long after breakthrough has occured. In many cases I have encountered they use them for several weeks or months before replacing them - even though they are unlikely to offer proper protection after more than a few hours at best. The trouble is, people wearing gloves think they are protected and have a false sense of security - adopting practices they wouldn't think of using if they knew that they weren't protected. And once the chemical has permeated through the material it is in direct contact with the skin and the risk of harm can actually be increased. So in these cases, the "right" glove can be the "wrong" glove

Personal protection has to be a last resort, and this is just as relevant to gloves as other types of personal protection. Where thre is a risk of skin contact with cjemicals the best approach is to look to change the working method tso that skin contact doesn't occur, or is a least minimised to the lowest level practicable. For example, rather than using a solvent soaked cloth held directly in the hand, simple applicators could be used (something like a roller or "paint pad"might be options). A litle imagination is all that is needed.

Stressful Challenge

2009-01-14T10:10:00.000-08:00

One issue occupational hygienists don't usually get involved with is mental health, yet this is a major cause of ill health associated with work. The best estimate from the Health and Safety Executive is that In Great Britain there were at least 5,750 new cases of work-related mental health problems in 2007, although this is likely to be a significant underestimate of the true incidence. A survey of the British workforce suggested that in 2007/08 an estimated 442 000 individuals in Britain, believed that they were experiencing work-related stress at a level that was making them ill. These figures are comparable to the numbers affected by more traditional types of occupational ill health.

The nature of work in Western Europe is changing. Traditional industry is shutting up shop and moving to cheap labour economies. The number of people exposed to chemical and physical stressors in Western Europe and the USA has reduced and will probably continue to do so for the foreseeable future. In the developing economies occupational hygienists will continue to face the same types of problems that hygienists have been dealing with for many years. But elsewhere, the nature of work related illness is changing and will continue to do so with mental stress probably becoming even more important. This is a challenge that will need to be addressed. There are other professions that view mental health as "their" territory - particularly medical professionals. But they are focused on treatment rather than prevention.

Preventing stress at work is largely about work organisation and the social, rather than physical, environment. These issues often fall into the remit of ergonomists but most occupational hygienists don't get too involved in them. However, the principles of control are the same, whatever the stressor and I believe that most hygienists have to skills to apply the principles of good control practice to the prevention and control of mental stress. Where we are likely to have difficulties is in the recognition and evaluation of the problem and if we are to begin to become involved in tackling the issue this is where we are likely to have to develop new knowledge and skills and learn how to apply our existing skills to a new problem. HSE have some interesting material on their website including tools that can be used for the identification and assessment of work related stress.

Occupational hygiene is about preventing ill health and if the causes and nature of work related illness changes perhaps we need to change our focus and adapt our skills to the new challenges posed in the recognition, evaluation and control of stress at work. This wouldn't be easy, but perhaps its something we ought to be thinking about.

My bloody eardrums

2009-01-09T11:13:00.000-08:00

There was an interesting article in the Guardian today about noise exposure of rock musicians and their audience (Come on, feel the noise).

One particularly interesting quote came from Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine when asked about whether he was concerned about using potentially harmful sound levels

"It does bother me, that's why I made sure earplugs were available and that we play within tried and tested sound pressure levels with a limit of 119dB(A). We also never overdrive the PA, which can provide spike of distortion up to 130dB. We'd like to say that it is cool to wear earplugs; it's not cool to get your hearing damaged. And anyway, feeling the music is a great experience."

European noise legislation includes a Limit Value of 87 dB(A). This is a daily "average" which must not be exceeded, although the protection provided by any ear defenders worn can be taken into account when assessing compliance with the limit. At 119 dB(A) the daily noise dose would exceed the Limit Value in less than a minute!

Ear defenders would have to provide 32 dB attenuation to make sure exposure was below the limit, and there are not many devices that can provide such a high level of protection. And its worth bearing in mind that as the protection provided by ear defenders is frequency dependant so they also distort what the wearer hears - with higher frequencies being reduced more than low frequencies. So is he really serious about it being "cool" to wear earplugs?

Audiences exposed to this level could experience ear damage even if they only attend one concert. The band, exposed to this sort of noise level regularly, certainly will.

Recognition

2009-01-07T13:36:00.000-08:00

The first step in resolving a problem is to recognise that one exists. So to be successful in controlling risks to health we need to make sure that we've identified any potential health hazards.

The traditional scope of occupational hygiene covers chemical, physical and biological agents, with an occasional nod towards ergonomics (at least the musculoskeletal injury aspects). In fact there is quite a bit of overlap with ergonomics, and consideration of this is probably worth a post sometime in the near future.

Chemical agents are probably the main concern for most practising hygienists. With the advent of new European wide legislation (REACH )on the control of chemicals it will continue to be a major issue for the foreseeable future. (Having said that REACH isn't just about occupational health and it won't necessarily fall into the lap of occupational hygiene, a subject for a future post, I think). Of the physical agents noise and vibration are probably the only two that most hygienists get involved with, but they do account for a considerable proportion of occupational ill health (in Great Britain about half a million people suffer to some degree from occupational deafness while there are around 288,000 cases of vibration white finger) . Some may get involved with heat and cold stress and non-ionising radiation, but, truth be told, not that many know that much about them.

The nature of work in Western Europe is changing. Traditional industry is shutting up shop and moving to cheap labour economies. The number of people exposed to chemical and physical stressors in Western Europe and the USA has reduced and will probably continue to do so for the foreseeable future. In the developing economies occupational hygienists will continue to face the same types of problems that hygienists have been dealing with for many years. But elsewhere, the nature of work related illness is changing and will continue to do so. Occupational hygiene may need to change and start to address the new issues and challenges.

I could waffle on here as there are certainly a number of issues worth exploring, for example:

what skills do occupational hygienists need in relation to recognising hazards? Should cram our brains with information on the harmful effects of lots of chemicals and other agents (which is our current professional qualifications require)? Alternatively, should we be aware of broader principles which allow us to recognise the types of agents that are likely to cause harm and develop the skills to use the wide range of information sources to find out about the effects?
One issue we don't get involved in is mental health, yet this is a major cause of ill health associated with work. Should occupational hygienists should be more involved in helping to prevent mental health problems associated with work?
How should occupational hygienists relate to REACH requirements on identifying hazards from chemicals? How do we make sure we aren't sidelined?

These issues warrant reflection in the near future.

What's in a name?

2009-01-06T06:33:00.000-08:00

I'm an occupational hygienist. Don't worry if you don't know what that is - nobody ever does. I'm sure most people think that its something to do with cleaning out the works toilets or possibly cleaning teeth.

What is occupational hygiene about then? Well the definition of hygiene provided by the online dictionary http://dictionary.reference.com/ is

The science that deals with the promotion and preservation of health.
Conditions and practices that serve to promote or preserve health

In other words its about preventing ill health, so occupational hygiene is simply about preventing ill health caused by work.

In Great Britain, according to official statistics, 229 workers were killed at work in 2007/8 due to accidents. Its relatively easy to gather this sort of information - its very difficult to hide the fact that somebody has been killed. But its considerably more difficult to obtain accurate figures on the number of people who die due to a disease they've contracted due to their work. As most industrial disease takes many years to develop the individuals may have moved job, or even retired. Some diseases can have more than one cause (some work related, others not) and its not always easy to decide exactly what caused it. So statistics on ill health at work are not absolutely certain. One fatal disease that is almost always work related is mesothelioma of the pleura, a cancer of the lung lining which is caused by exposure to certain types of asbestos. In 2006, two thousand and fifty six (2056) people in Great Britain died due to mesothelioma, almost ten times as many as were killed by accidents at work. (The numbers are increasing and are expected to peak at around 2450 deaths in 2015.) And that's only one work related disease. There are others including other types of cancer, other lung diseases, such as silicosis, and diseases affecting other organs. On an international scale, the World Health Organisation estimates that there are around two million work-related deaths per year.

Of course not everyone dies from disease. Work related ill health can have other impacts on life, causing discomfort, pain and disability. Its difficult to obtain reliable statistics on this, but a survey by the UK Health and Safety Executive indicated that 2.1 million people in Great Britain suffer from an illness they believed was caused or made worse by their current or past work.

So ill health caused by work is a serious problem, even if its not as visible as the results of accidents at work. Occupational hygienists work to reduce the number of people affected. We do that by

recognising where there are potential problems that could cause ill health
evaluating the degree of risk - i.e. how serious the problem is in practice
finding ways to control the risk

I'll explore each of these in my next few posts.

To Blog or not to Blog

2009-01-05T08:15:00.000-08:00

According to an article in the Guardian on New Year's day, a poll of Internet users indicated that 7% of UK users had a blog. Well I've been using the Internet for quite a long time now and recently have found myself reading blogs more and more, so its perhaps time I had one too.

There are probably plenty of things I could blog about - personal interests, random observations, rants on all sorts of issues. But I guess the most productive use of my time would be to link a blog into my professional activities. "Reflective practice" has become quite trendy in professional circles (although my own profession hasn't caught up with it yet). Its really only about thinking about what you do and learning lessons from your experience which can be put into practice later on. I like to think that I do reflect on my work and learn from my experiences, but up to now I haven't done this in a structured way. I also spend quite a lot of time trying to keep up to date and expanding my knowledge relating to my work - reading books, journals, websites and blogs, attending meetings etc. But usually don't stop to think systematically about what I've learned.

Perhaps the best way I can use a blog is to treat it as a "reflective journal". By thinking about my experiences, reading and learning in a more structured way and writing down my thoughts and conclusions, I hope I'll be able to crystallise my ideas and improve my knowledge and practice. In that way the time spent writing the posts and maintaining the blog won't be wasted - even if nobody else reads what I've produced! If one or more people stumble on my ramblings and get something useful from them, well that will be a bonus. Even better, if I develop some new contacts.

So I'll write about my reflections on

my work as a consultant in occupational hygiene
my experiences as a trainer
the stuff I read
anything else I find myself thinking about

I'll make a proper start tomorrow.