Importance of Industrial Hygiene - Term Paper Example

Abstract Though, present day industry uses advanced technology, but still effect of the process may cause harm both to the worker and environment. Works in industries are complex and require the use of feedstock that act subversively to human health. Thus, modern day industry needs to be concerned about biological safety, chemical safety, radiation safety, fire safety, occupational safety, and so on. This work studies the concept and necessity of industrial hygiene at workplace. It also studies how in the modern century, a leading petrochemical company complies with its commitment in keeping the workplace and environment safe. Table of contents Industrial hygiene: Its importance 5 Commitment to occupational health and safety 5 Health hazards at work place: Sources, evaluation, and control 6 Hazards in petrochemical industries 9 Components of industrial hygiene program 10 Scope and objective of the study 11 Company profile 12 Company safety principles: Environment, health, safety, and security (EHS&S) 12 Company’s safety and environment protection programs 14 Conclusion 19 Acronyms ACC American Chemistry Council AIIHA American Industrial Hygiene Association EHS&S Environment, health, safety, and security IARC International Agency for the Research KPI Continuous improvement of Key Performance Indicator OSHA Health and Safety Administration OH&S Occupational hazard and safety SHEPI Safety, Health, and Environment Performance Index REACH Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals SHEM Safety, health, and environment management standards Industrial hygiene: Its importance According to the US Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA), industrial hygiene is the science of anticipating, recognizing, evaluating, and controlling workplace conditions that may cause workers' injury or illness (“OSHA 3143”). OSHA website in this account gives historic information starting from 4th century BC until this day about concerns of eminent philosophers, scientists and lawmakers regarding implementation of industrial hygiene at the work place. A group of people for the sake of the society every day engage themselves in specific work activities that can endanger their lives. Society must take a responsibility of health and life of individuals who are working in dangerous and hazardous environment to make others lives better. This is probably the philosophical and moral concept of necessity of implementation of industrial hygiene at different work places. However, a moral concept hardly becomes a legal instrument in taking care of men who are engaged in hazardous profession. That is why, there are many professional and governmental organizations that develop and control laws related to the safety of workers at work places. In the US except OSHA, there are American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIIHA), American Board of Industrial Hygiene, National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health who play their vigilant role in implementing industrial hygiene rules and regulations at different industries. The purpose of these organizations is to address occupational health and safety of workers at their work places and maintain world environment safe. Commitment to occupational health and safety As described above, certain sectors of the industries of today’s modern world are engaged in activities that can disable a man or cause fatal consequence. That is why it is essential that an industry owner provide safe working environment at work. Implementation of safety environment at the work place is related to additional expenses to the business owner. It requires providing workers with safety clothing and gear, installation of safety equipment at work, educating workers and managers to make sure safety are observed at work places. Though these measures absorb certain liquid assets of the business, but in the long run it ensures maximum efficiency for an industry. It reduces illness and injury compensations and increases productivity by improving working environment (Plog and Quinlan, 2001). Thus, knowledge and understanding of occupational hazard and safety (OH&S) helps a business owner avoid unnecessary expense and damages (“”Occupational Health and Sagety”). The OH&S should not be seen as an additional cost; it is better to deal with health and safety before they get out of hand. Injury to a work irrespective of reasons such as reduced productivity, lower sale, and lower staff morale is a negative impact to a business. That is why health and safety from business owner’s viewpoint should not be seen just compiling with government regulations, but as a commitment. Health hazards at work place: Sources, evaluation, and control Hazard control program (“Hazard Control”) is designed to protect workers from exposure to a material, substance, process or system. In this purpose industrial hygienists furnish a procedure about how to monitor worker exposure and their health to hazards like noise, vibration, toxic materials, and chemicals. At any workplace, a written program outlines which methods being used to control workers exposure and how it will monitor and record. Selecting a control method requires doing a risk assessment to evaluate and itemize the hazards and risk. A risk assessment includes in itself; identifying hazards evaluating risks associated with the hazard, and determining ways to eliminate. During this analysis both normal and unusual situations should be studied. Each hazard control program must be customized; so two programs do not look alike. For industrial hygienist challenge is in choosing a control method. It depends on large selection of parameters, and that is an empirical guidance, which is difficult to offer. However, some general rules are established in the industry, and they are (“Hazard Control”): Evaluation and selection of temporary and permanent controls Implementation of temporary control and work in installing permanent control. An example of above description may be explained in using of hearing protection in a noisy place as temporary solution for workers, while reducing or eliminating noise thru certain engineering approach as permanent control. Guidance, in this regard is outlined in government legislation and safety manuals of the products. However, the following is a common guidance practiced in different industries (“Hazard Control”): Remove hazard from work place Modify engineering design, add ventilation system, use equipment that reduces source of exposure Use individual protective equipment against exposure and noise Train workers to change work habit, teach good house keeping, equipment maintenance, use checklist while working with hazardous material and dangerous equipment Thus, hazard control program includes finding causes, evaluation how they affect on health and environment, determine how to control it. The following section gives a brief description on general idea of hazard control at workplaces. The following are considered to be the main causes of health hazard (“Industrial Hygiene”) ; Chemical Agents Physical agents Biological agents Ergonomic agents Chemical agents It can exist at work places in different states such as airborne contamination, surface contamination, combination of air borne with surface contamination in the form of splash and welding. Chemical agent enters to the human body thru inhalation of gasses or vapor or breathing airborne particles, skin contact with liquids, vapors, gasses, and eye contact with vapors, gasses and liquids. Physical agents It can exist at work place in the form of noises, vibration, ionizing and non-ionizing radiation, temperature extreme and pressure extreme. Biological agents It can exist at work places in the form of viruses, parasites, fungi, pollen, and bacteria. Ergonomic agents It exists as a relationship between man and working environment. It is the effect caused to a worker due to joint work of man, machine and working environment. As an example, certain demand at the workplace may cause mental and physical distress to a worker. As a result of it, a worker may sustain an injury or physiological disorder. Industrial hygiene recommends following procedure to identify health hazard at a work place; recognition, evaluation, and control. Recognition It is a survey of the establishment and workplaces. The purpose of the survey is to identify chemicals and other substances used at workplaces. The survey must indicate if measures and steps are taken for each and every hazardous environment, such as providing protective gear and clothing, maintaining ventilation system and storage facilities. Evaluation This process identifies the extent of potential health hazard that exists at the work place. It starts with the study of causes for existence of health hazard at work place. It determines if appropriate instruments are selected to assess health hazard parameters and if they are properly calibrated, samplings are taken in proper way, and analyses are done in according to instructions. Control After the completion of survey, and based on sampling results, specific controls measures should be recommended. Recommendation could be; substitution, quarantine or enclosure of workplace, removal of contamination, use of personal protective equipment, liquidation of toxic dusts by water, maintaining healthy housekeeping. Hazards in petrochemical industry A petrochemical complex is an integral combination of refinery and chemical processing plants spreading over a substantial amount of land. The toxic emissions include; benzene, styrene, toluene, xylene, ethylene, propylene, ethylbenzene, gasoline, hydrogen sulphide, jet fuel, heating oil, petroleum coke, epichlorohydrin, calcium chloride, butadiene, catalysts, and epoxy resins (Chan, C. et. al). The toxic exposure, according to the International Agency for the Research (IARC) contains carcinogens that causes cancers. The study of 11 plants in Te-Sher Petrochemical Complex, Taiwan, showed that toxic emission (Chan,C. et. al) caused acute health risk, severe health risk, and cancer risk. The study determined hazard index using toxic pollution during one hour of the day for three years. Result showed that a toxic index higher than 1 would become hazardous for workers. Petrochemical complex possesses a serious threat from the viewpoint of environmental hazard issue (Hafsham, W, 2007). Many feedstock, intermediate and finished products are flammable, and industry performance deals with high temperature and pressure. Beside the health risks described above, the industry is a potential source for fires and explosions. On top of it, workers in this industry on a daily basis handle corrosive chemicals. It is needless to mention about the importance of implementation of industrial hygiene at petrochemical complexes. Injuries at work from accidents in petrochemical industries are documented worldwide, which proves the use safety measures in these industries. The scope of this work is not to discuss or analyze those accidents. The accidents are facts and investigations showed flaws were in maintaining safety operation at work. Components of industrial hygiene program General components (“Industrial Hygiene Site Program”) of industrial hygiene program are; hazard recognition, evaluation exposure assessment, hazard control, and employee training. Hazard recognition, exposure assessment, and hazard control are technical work that requires use of method and equipment. This responsibility belongs to industry management. There are various models that describe necessary steps in implementing industrial hygiene program. It incorporates responsibilities of employers in maintaining safety. Some of the steps towards maintaining safety are;. Providing work place with safe machines, tools, equipment, and substances. Industrial hygiene program starts at workplace. Tools and environment of the work site determine worker’s exposures, and risks. Providing a safe place and environment at work. Workers need to work under bright lighting, good ventilation and in a clean place. Providing rules, procedure, and instruction for safe work. Workers need to be educated for safety operations of machinery or handling of material. Providing adequate welfare facilities such as rest rooms, meals room and first aid. Carrying out supervision if instructions are followed at the work place. At the same time, an employee takes following responsibility:. To work according to prescribed safety rules. To cooperate with the supervisor in implementing regulations for safety of workers. To wear and use protective equipment and clothing. One of the components of industrial hygiene program is employee training. This is an important aspect in maintaining safety at work. Work at a working place is an interaction between a man and a machine. The machine has no mind or emotion. But its counterpart has a mind and emotion. Besides factors not depending on workers, there are many other reasons that trigger an accident are due to workers wrongdoing. Various opinions and publications are available on this subject. Some common reasons that may trigger an accident due to wrongdoing of a worker are explained here (“Seven common accident causes”). Taking short cuts: Studies have shown that to make the job faster and more efficient workers adopt certain short cut methods bypassing given instructions. This approach brings danger to the worker and other members. Short cuts that reduce safety on the job are not shortcuts, but an increased chance for injury. Being over confident: A work place needs a confident worker. "It'll never happen to me" is over confidence and such attitude can lead to use of improper procedures, tools, or methods causing an injury or death. Starting a Task with Incomplete Instructions: It may occur that a worker gets incomplete instruction from the supervisor before initiating a job. The worker may be shy to ask the instructor or even argue. It is not proper to start a work without having proper instruction or not understanding the instruction. It is a part of the job of a supervisor to make sure this does not happen. The above discussion shows that industrial hygiene program needs to develop with the consideration of comprehensive understanding of the machine and social environment. Scope and objective of the study The objective of this project is to examine safety aspect with reference to production, health of employees and ambient environment of petrochemical industry located in the Middle East. The crucial aspect is to investigate how the said industry is managing the workers’ and environment’s safety, handling hazardous and combustible material Company profile SABIC is Saudi Arabian company (“Sabic”) established in 1976 by the Royal Decree, and now it ranked the world’s largest petrochemical manufacturer. It is the second largest diversified chemical company in world. SABIC is a public company with 70 % of the shares to Saudi Arabian government and the rest by the private investors from Saudi Arabia and countries of the Gulf Corporation Council. Prince Saud bin Abdullah bin Thunayan Al-Saud is the Chairman of the company. Mohamad H Al-Mady is the vice president and CEO of the company. He also leads global management team. A board of directors selected from government and private sectors governs the company. 14 vice presidents maintain company daily activities. Each of them is responsible for a specific product and service area. Its principle corporate offices and headquarters are in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Their principal industrial operations are concentrated in the city of Al-Jubail and Dammam on the Arabian Gulf, and in the city of Yanbu on the Red Sea. The company has operation in 40 countries of the world with 40,000 work forces. The purpose of creation of the company was to use by-products of oil extraction to produce for export chemicals, polymer, and fertilizer. SABIC started delivering its products to the world market in 1981. In 1985 total production was 6.3 million metric tons, while by the end of 2008; it reached 60 million metric tons. At present, the company is manufacturing in different parts of the world; 22 plants in Middle East, 9 plants in Asia, 12 plants in Europe, and 17 plants in America. Company safety principles: Environment, health, safety, and security (EHS&S) SABIC, the second largest company (“Sabic”) in the world and it is committed to maintaining highest safety standard. It also encourages affiliates and contractors to do the same. The company maintains full and transparent approach in the EHS&S. From the beginning of its function, all of the SABIC production and storage facilities are built in strict compliance with the international environmental and safety standards. Company’s EHS&S program is considered to be one of the best, and the company vouches its continual improvement. The company’s highest executives back this attitude. The company managers and employees are committed to conducting daily production operations in a safe manner to minimize adverse impact on environment and employees health and prevent injuries and accident. The company has implemented the following policies (responsibility) in protecting (“Sabic”) environment, health and safety (EH&S): Comply with all applicable government and company’s environment, health, safety & security laws and regulations Create and maintain a safe and secure working environment of workplaces to prevent injuries, illness and violence · Design and operate manufacturing facilities according to safety programs thus reducing the chance of accidents · Asses EHS&S before buying and producing of a new product Follow pollution prevention policy, implement recycling and conservation of materials, water, and energy · Continue improving EHS&S Promptly alert mangers on EHS&S of any unlawful or unsafe work and security problems. SABIC fully acknowledges that policy implementation is crucial in protecting environmental and health safety the other part is control. In this regard, the company keeps vigilant eyes on any unsafe around the work place. Company controls that all employees: · Use personal protective equipment such as shoes, safety glasses, hearing protection, gloves, etc. · Follow approved safety operation process at workplace Do not use unlabeled and unsafe chemicals Use safety protection against falling on the ground while working at high elevation Use lock out and tag out procedures while working on electrical powered equipment Do not disable safety controls of equipment and machinery Measure safety condition while working on the customer’s site Promptly report any failure of product safety issues Company managers are responsible to observe: Failure to comply with EHS&S regulations and procedures Complaints from employees, customers or neighbors Proper disposal of hazardous materials Risks and liability associated with new acquisitions of processes or services Company on a regular basis maintains training program among employees to make sure safety program is assured in accordance with the latest development of industry standards. Company’s safety and environment protection programs SABIC provides workers appropriate trainings and equipment Safety at the workplace to address the safety at workplaces. Company safety managers carry out regular inspection to control if safety measures are adopted by the working places. The company provides lecture courses and staff training of the worker to improve the safety. This has produced substantial benefit, which includes 106 million man-hours without injury, while the SABIC contractors had 38 million man-hours. The following facts highlight company’s performance in the area of safety at workplaces: SABIC in year 2008 maintained Safety, Health, and Environment Performance Index (SHEPI) equal to 0.74, while SABIC contractor was able to maintain 0.35 In 2007 SABIC recorded eight work related injuries, while in 2008 it dropped down to 2 SABIC affiliates and contractors have achieved 157 million safe man-hours SABIC Safety, Health, and Environmental performance has been recognized by Saudi Arabia’s Royal Commission, the British Safety Council, the Japan Industrial Safety and Health Association, the Royal Society for Prevention of Accidents, the National Safety Council Award, The Responsible Care Award Besides it, SABIC has implemented the following programs (“Sabic”) in developing its strategy towards safety of worker and environment issues: Continuous improvement of Key Performance Indicator (KPI) Use of safety, health, and environment management standards (SHEM) Product stewardship SAFER program Responsible care certification Green chemistry EHSS award EHSS alert and awareness External recognition KPI Maintenance and improvement of safety program for large and diversified industry like SABIC requires sharp focus on EHS&S key performance indicators (KPI). Only then companies like SABIC will be able to determine current safety results and how to improve further. Application of program like KPI entirely satisfies Occupational Health and Safety Professions recommendation; a written program and policy requires direct participation and enthusiastic support of company’s leadership. This is exactly what includes SABIC offer of KPI program. This program is delivering significant improvement in the field of safety. Company’s implemented EHS&S values are evaluated thru recognized OSHA incident rate, it showed a drop of 35 percent during 2005 to 2011 among company’s direct employees. In 2005, the incident rate was 0.35, while in 2011; it was 0.22. The same evaluation showed 53 percent drop for contract employees 0.25 against 0.53. SABIC also developed own incident rate method evaluation – SHER. SHER considers evaluation on factors like process safety, environment and security. During 2005 – 2011, SHER dropped from 3.55 to 1.05, marking a 70 percent drop. SABIC has also developed other incident indexed to consider the effect of factors like greenhouse gas emission, water usage, and utilization. The program KPI is a noteworthy approach towards evaluation impact of a petrochemical industry’s activity for human and environment. SHEM SABIC is a diversified company that offers their customer full service, which include material transportation by road and sea. SHEM considers influences on ESH&S from transportation viewpoint. Product stewardship SABIC produces and transports different toxic chemical materials. To satisfy EHS&S requirement, company developed programs to assess health and safety aspects of their chemical products. The program evaluates risks to human health and environment of raw materials and finished products. Company developed Stewardship methodology that helped assess product risk and make greener product portfolio. Company conducted Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) certification of all business unit products. Company also conducts customer feed back program to study product compliance. SAFER program This program was designed to evaluate what would happen if EHS&S was reduced to a lower level. The program was designed in house, and it covers risks EHS&S related activities. Many workshops were established for the implementation of the program. Responsible care certification In 1988, American Chemistry Council (ACC) launched Responsible Care as EHS&S performance improvement initiative. The CEO of SABIC, being in the forefront in 20110 provided strong leadership in compliance with the requirement of Responsible care certification. SABIC global commitment to Responsible Care for safety of human and environment in 2011 was recognized by; VNCI award (Dutch Chemical Industry Association) as Trendsetter in Transport Safety, National Pollution Prevention Award for turning waste into commercial product, American Chemistry Council’s Energy Awards for projects completed at Selkirk, New York and Mt. Vernon. SABIC is committed to arranging safety transportation of toxic materials throughout the entire chain. SABIC developed safety related requirements for rail tank cars with hazardous materials by installing special crush buffers Green Chemistry SABIC has launched a project to account for global greenhouse gas emissions, water and energy usage, and material loss. In this regards in September 2011, SABIC inaugurated Green Chemistry Campus in Bergen op Zoom, Netherlands to promote innovative technology. The goal is to derive green building blocks such as chemicals from agricultural sources. This is a contribution to making a bio-based economy. EHS&S Award program SABIC highly recognizes excellent EHS&S performances of contractors and rewards them accordingly. Company’s global EHS&S award program evaluates performance indicators to maintain continuous improvement of their works. Gold Award for 2011 went to SABIC affiliate United along with Petrokemya. The top maintenance Award went to Al-Suwaidi Industrial Services of Saudi Arabia. EHSS alerts and awareness SABIC uses proactive method in reducing hazardous incidents by communicating and sharing information and learning from those incidents that already took place. SABIC in this regard works globally with own affiliates and other companies. Alert and awareness bulletins are distributed among employees based on information received from different sources. During 2011, SABIC distributed 37 alerts and 32 awareness bulletins among employees covering a wide range of information starting from process safety to occupational health. In promoting continuous improvement of EHS&S, company’s Middle East Africa regional group organized training course toward National Examination Board Occupational Safety and Health (NEBOSH) in environmental management. External Recognition Globally dedicated work of SABIC in maintaining a safe work environment to safe work practice received recognition of government and renowned international organization. Awards received by the company are; UK Chemical Industry Association’s “Diamond Safety Award,” OSHA’s Voluntary Protection Plan Star, ExxonMobil’s Chemical Responsible Care Team Award Certificateof Recognition of the Association of International Chemical Manufacturers American Chemistry Council’s Responsible Care Energy Efficiency Award, British Safety Council’s International Safety Merit Award OSHA Safe-manhours award GoldAward for Occupational Health & Safety awarded by the UK’s Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents. Conclusion Industrial hygiene program incorporates inclusion of policy, education, health hazard recognition, health hazard evaluation, control, and compliance. SABIC is the leader in the petrochemical industry in the world. Above discussion of company’s program in supporting industrial hygiene program is exemplary. Company’s EHS&S programs fully comply with the accepted industry standard in this field. Company is not only maintaining EHS&S but is also improving the standards (program KPI). Company has developed in house safety standards (product stewardship program) which got acknowledgement from world recognized organizations. Company’s EHS&S alert and awareness should be noted as innovative program in keeping the workplace safe. It is better being pro-active when security is in concern. This approach is a preventive measure that should be recommended especially to major industries like SABIC . EHS&S award program creates an incentive among affiliated companies and contractors. This program also works as a safety evaluation method since it informs which section of the industry is maintaining proper EHS&S and which sections are lagging behind. Company’s participation in Responsible Care program shows its global commitment towards implementation of safety regulations in different sections of the industry. References Chan, C., Shie, R., Chang, T., Tsai, D. (n.d.). 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