Register of Irish Occupational Hygiene Professionals
The OHSI Register provides a list of competent occupational hygiene professionals in the Republic of Ireland. The Register is administered by the Faculty of Occupational Hygiene, the Professional Standards Body for the British Occupational Hygiene Profession.
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Whether you are employing someone to provide occupational hygiene advice in-house or have employed the services of a company/individual, you need to check that the person giving you advice is competent to do so, as defined in the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act, 2005.
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The Register enables you to check if an individual has been independently verified by the British Occupational Hygiene Society to possess sufficient training, experience, and knowledge in occupational hygiene.
How to achieve best outcomes for occupational hygiene monitoring in your business
Occupational Hygiene is the discipline of anticipating, recognising, evaluating and controlling health hazards in the working environment. It is not just about the air quality at the workplace. It includes inhalational exposure (air), dermal exposure (skin, contaminated surfaces) and inadvertent ingestion. It applies to measurements of chemicals, noise and vibration in the workplace.
Occupational hygiene monitoring involves:
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observations of the activities giving rise to the noise/vibration/chemical,
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the measurement of specific agents,
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interpreting the results of the measurements (numbers) to determine the exposure, and
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identifying/providing specific solutions / controls.
So BEFORE you organise and pay for a measurement survey ask yourself:
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Why are we doing this?
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What are we going to measure?
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What information do we wish to obtain?
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What will we do with the results?
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Common problems
Several reports from different sources have been reviewed and information fed back to the employer. Problems noted include:
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too many numbers (e.g. pages and pages of data) with no interpretation,
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making conclusions of safety based on too few measurements,
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comparing results of background or area monitoring with OEL’s,
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using environmental methods rather that internal workplace methods,
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using the wrong OEL for comparison,
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monitoring carried out by personnel with MCERTs e.g. for stack emissions,
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monitoring in compliance with COSHH,
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giving general advice e.g. buy a quiet machine, rather than identifying the source of the noise and trying to fix it,
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putting the sampling device in the wrong place e.g. for soldering sampler should be attached to safety glasses not lapel,
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measurements of chemicals even though no OEL available,
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results reported for individual chemicals rather than combined exposure,
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failing to take account of dermal exposure or inadvertent ingestion,
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lack of contextual information – lack of repeatability, and
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a repeat of a survey with no action to reduce exposure taken in-between.
These problems mean that the data is misleading, useless or worse gives a completely false sense of security. We have noticed that those reports planned and prepared by people with professional occupational hygiene qualifications in occupational hygiene e.g. LFOH, are more in line with best practice.
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When and Why?
You may need to carry out occupational hygiene monitoring or sampling in your workplace for the following reasons:
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Your current information is not good enough to make an informed risk assessment.
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You need to identify specific sources of noise or chemical exposure.
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You need help to identify the most suitable control solution for a particular scenario.
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You need to check on the effectiveness of controls.
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You need to detect a failure or deterioration of a control measure which could cause a serious health effect.
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You need to carry out exposure monitoring to determine potential exposures.
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You need to identify health surveillance needs.
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You want to general review of existing arrangements for the management of health hazards.
You will need to explain your needs/requirements to the occupational hygiene consultants, so they can properly understand the issue and provide you with the service you need. Ask them to confirm that they understand the work to be undertaken, what the final deliverables and timescales are and to provide a breakdown of activities.
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The timing of the monitoring should be reflective of the exposure. Cleaning and maintenance activities can often result in higher exposure so these may need to be included. The duration of the monitoring is often prescribed by the method, with minimum and maximum monitoring times.
The frequency of monitoring will depend on the reason(s) for the monitoring, the results of any monitoring and your risk assessment. There is no legal requirement to carry out annual monitoring. EN689 Standard has information on frequency depending on the results of monitoring.
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How?
Monitoring methods depend on how substances or physical hazards such as noise and vibration get into or affect the body and the reason why you are carrying out monitoring. The most commonly used methods are as follows:
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Personal Sampling - sampling the air in the worker’s breathing zone (this is the only result that can be compared with OEL’s).
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Area or source sampling – e.g. checking general background, potential leak sites.
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Surface sampling e.g. wipe sampling of the skin.
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Biological monitoring and biological effect monitoring.
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Measuring noise levels e.g. noise control survey.
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How many samples?
The number and type of samples required depends on the purpose of monitoring. Continuous monitoring may be required in some cases, e.g. Carbon Monoxide
“I.S. EN 689:2018 Workplace exposure - Measurement of exposure by inhalation to chemical agents - Strategy for testing compliance with occupational exposure limit values” is the European Standard. It specifies a strategy to perform representative measurements of exposure by inhalation to chemical agents in order to demonstrate the compliance with occupational exposure limit values (OELVs). It is available from www.nsai.ie. Taking only one or two samples limits our ability to understand a worker’s real exposure and is not statistically significant. For example a preliminary test in EN689 requires that where three measurements are taken, all results should be <10% OEL.
Please note that the above standard covers inhalational exposure. Where dermal exposure could occur, biological monitoring may be more appropriate. An occupational medical advisor can advise on necessity and frequency of biological or biological effect monitoring.
There may be other monitoring standards that are relevant to your particular industry.
First Name | Last Name | Country |
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Darren | Arkins | Ireland |
Amir | Awadalla | Ireland |
Damien T | Boyd | Ireland |
Denis | Byrne | Ireland |
Marie | Coggins | Ireland |
Eoin | Collins | Ireland |
Laurence | Dolan | Ireland |
Nuala | Flavin | Ireland |
Paul | Foran | Ireland |
Petrus | Horak | Ireland |
Ann | Hourihane | Ireland |
Loretta | Mathews | Ireland |
Orla | McCann | Ireland |
Patrick | McGuinn | Ireland |
Mary | Murphy | Ireland |
Deirdre | Ni Loideain | Ireland |
Lauren | O'Donoghue | Ireland |
Tim | O'Sullivan | Ireland |
Deirdre | Rooney | Ireland |
Mark | Ryan | Ireland |
Shara | Smith | Ireland |
Mary | Walsh | Ireland |
Frances | Wright | Ireland |