OHCOW & Workers Health and Safety Centre (WHSC) to deliver NEW Hygiene Monitoring Program

They say “Two heads are better than one.”  With this adage in mind, the WHSC has developed an Occupational Hygiene Monitoring program to be delivered in partnership with the Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers (OHCOW).  

This six-hour program is intended for the first four hours to be facilitated by a Workers Centre-trained instructor, followed by a two-hour presentation from an OHCOW occupational hygienist. 

This program is designed for workers, especially joint health and safety committee members, who may be involved with air sampling in their work­place. It discusses the use of hygiene monitoring as a method to detect the presence of hazards, to measure their concentrations, and to evaluate the risk to worker health and safety. Once results are known, appropriate control measures can be implemented. 

While workplace health and safety representatives can use hygiene monitoring as an effective tool to help protect worker health and safety, participants will learn it has certain limitations. As such, hygiene monitoring should not be depended on as the definitive means by which workplace health and safety conditions can be improved. The reasons for this include: unknown effects of long-term exposure to some substances; occupational exposure limits are often set too high to protect workers; exposure limits are often set using unscientific and inappropriate methods; and inaccurate results can stem from faulty equipment or subjective decisions by the hygienist. 

Also discussed is the importance of developing an effective strategy for sampling that best evaluates worker exposure to a hazard.  The sampling strategy should answer such questions as why is monitoring required, what should be sampled, where to sample, how and when to sample. 

In the section addressing sampling techniques, participants look at instrument selection and sampling methods. These depend primarily on the type of substance to be sampled. Further as each Designated Substance Regulation contains a provision for hygiene monitoring and includes specific sampling methods, the program considers these as well. 

Finally, the program emphasizes the role of the joint health and safety committee in planning and implementing an effective workplace hygiene monitoring program. It points out the Occupational Health and Safety Act allows for specific involvement of the certified member or the worker representative in any workplace hygiene monitoring. 

One of two videos accompanies the program. Matter of Facts is approximately 27 minutes long and dramatizes a work refusal based on chemical exposure in an industrial workplace. Hygiene monitoring is one of the tools used by joint committee members, in the video, as they investigate concerns. The other video, Air Apparent is similar to the first, but the health and safety concern is poor air quality in an office environment. 

The OHCOW industrial hygienist’s presentation includes a discussion on what is expected from an industrial hygiene report and how to make sense of it. Where time permits the hygienist may demonstrate any available hygiene monitoring equipment. 

To book this program, contact Workers Centre training services.

Reprinted with permission from the April 2005- WHSC Instructor Notes