To ensure your employees are protected against chemicals, biological hazards and infectious agents, and physical agents such as noise, you need to know what they are exposed to and you need to have effective controls.
Knowing what air contaminants or sound levels to which your employees are exposed is essential to controlling those exposures and ensuring your employee exposure is below OSHA’s Permissible Exposure Limits and ACGIH’s Threshold Limit Values®. OSHA requires baseline and ongoing air monitoring for employees who work with methylene chloride, respirable crystalline silica, lead, hexavalent chromium, and many other chemicals. Exposure monitoring is needed to determine what type of hearing protection or respirators, if any, are required, and to know when to change respirator cartridges or what noise reduction rating for hearing protection is needed.
Our Certified Industrial Hygienist (CIH) is an expert in the science of anticipating, recognizing, evaluating, and controlling workplace conditions that may cause workers’ injury or illness.
We can provide the baseline or ongoing exposure monitoring required by OSHA, to determine if air contaminant levels are below Permissible Exposure Limits (PELs) or action levels. We can help you develop effective control measures, which could include substitution of less hazardous materials, installation of effective ventilation systems, or selection of appropriate respirators, hearing protection or chemical-resistant gloves.
Our comprehensive range of industrial hygiene services include:
- Air monitoring (for compliance with PELs, TLVs, and other exposure limits)
- Employee exposure assessments
- OSHA compliance programs for hazardous chemicals such as lead, cadmium, silica, hexavalent chromium, etc.
- Bloodborne Pathogen Exposure Control Plans and Infectious Agent Control Programs
- Safety Data Sheets (SDS) development
- Noise / sound level monitoring
- Online safety data sheet management system (SDSLInks)
- Recommendations for switching to less hazardous materials
- Written respirator programs, including respirator selection and change-out schedules
- Selection of appropriate personal protective equipment
- Right to Know / Hazard Communication Training
Read about our safety services case studies to learn how we have helped our clients.
Some of the industrial hygiene questions we’ve answered:
I use these chemicals in my vineyard. How bad are they and what kind of cartridges do I need for my respirator?
The police property stinks of marijuana. Is that a health risk and how can we control it?
An employee was diagnosed with histoplasmosis. Could it have come from mice in our building?
I need to provide quantitative respirator fit testing. Can you do that?
My employees could have exposure to silica from road work. Can you help me with a silica exposure control plan?
Are my Utilities workers at risk of HIV from being exposed to raw sewage?
Is this paint safe to use?