Instructor: Dr.

Chandra Mouli MR

CME 464 – Chemical Process

Safety
Industrial Hygiene
What is Industrial Hygiene?

• Science and art devoted to the anticipation, recognition, evaluation,

and control of those workplace environmental factors which may
cause sickness, impaired health and well-being, or significant
discomfort and inefficiency among workers or among citizens of the
community
Laws & Regulation
• Major tools for protecting people and the environment
• Law
• Regulation
• Environment Protection Agency (EPA)
• Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
• Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
Who is an Industrial Hygienist?

• A person who by study, training, and experience can:

– Anticipate
– Recognize
– Evaluate
– Control
workplace environmental hazards
Anticipation and Identification
• Anticipation/recognition of potential or actual hazards through
knowledge of:
–Materials
–Operations
–Processes
–Conditions
• Scope of IH activities encompasses the “cradle-to-grave” concept
• Source of Info – Process design descriptions, operating instructions,
safety reviews, equipment vendor descriptions, information from
operating personnel and the quality of identification depends on number
of resources used and the quality of questions asked.

• Collate and integrate the available information to identify new potential

problems resulting from the combined effects of multiple exposures.
• The potential hazards and methods of contact are identified and
recorded during the identification step.
Odor Thresholds and TLVs
• Chlorine odor threshold is 0.05 ppm while TLV is 0.5 ppm
• Ethylene oxide odor threshold is 851 ppm while TLV is 1 ppm
• Risk assessment – determination of the potential for hazards to result
in an accident is part of identification.
• Consequently, this list of potential hazards and their risk is used
during the evaluation and control phase of the IH.
• Priority basis-w.r.to appropriate time and attention based on the most
significant hazards.
Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS)
• One of the most important references for IH study involving toxic
chemicals.
• It lists the physical properties of a substance which is required to
determine potential hazards of the substance.
• MSDS are available from the chemical manufacturer, a commercial
source or a private library of the plant.
• Industrial hygienist should interpret the physical and toxicological
properties to determine the hazards associated with a chemical based
on MSDS
IH: Evaluation
• Determines extent and degree of employee exposure to toxicants and
physical hazards in the workplace environment. Likelihood of large
and small leaks.
• Large leaks cause sudden exposures to high concentrations that can
lead to acute defects.
• Small leaks or volatilization of solid or liquid chemicals cause chronic
effects subjected to repeated exposures to low concentrations.
Continuous or frequent and periodic sampling and analysis is
important.
IH: Evaluation Contd..
• Samples are taken to determine the workers’ exposure to conditions
that may be harmful. Controls must be implemented immediately in
addition to temporary control
• The exposure data is compared with the acceptable occupational
health standards such as TLVs, PELs.
• These comparisons would help to identify the potential hazards
requiring better or more control measures.
Evaluating Exposures to Volatile Toxicants by
Monitoring
• Monitoring of air concentrations of toxicants on-line in a work
environment. If continuous concentration data C(t) is recorded then
the TWA (time-weighted average) concentration which is computed
as:
For more than one chemical present in the
Workplace
Problem 1

TLV of toluene is 100 ppm, so the worker is overexposed hence additional control measures are to be
developed. On a temporary and immediate basis, appropriate respirators are to be worn
Problem 2
Problem 3
Data:
 Evaluating Worker Exposure to Dusts
• Dust evaluation calculations
are identical to that used for
volatile vapors.
• mg/m3 or mppcf (millions of
particles per cubic foot)
Evaluating Worker Exposures to Noise
• Noise levels are measured in decibels (dB)
• dB is a relative logarithmic scale used to compare the intensities of
two sounds.
• If I is the intensity of one sound and Io is the intensity of another
sound, then difference in the intensity levels in decibels is given by:

• Noise level calculations are identical to vapor calculations except that

dBA is used instead of ppm and hours of exposure is used instead of
concentration.
dBA (in absolute scale)
Problem 4
Estimating Worker Exposures to Toxic Vapors
Problem 5
Estimating the Vaporization Rate of a Liquid
M is the molecular weight of the species and the subscript ‘o’ refers to a reference substance
Estimating Worker Exposure during Vessel
Filling Operations
• For vessels being filled, volatile emissions are generated from two
sources
1. Evaporation of the liquid
2. Displacement of the vapor in the vapor space by the liquid
filling the vessel
• The net generation is the sum of these two terms
Estimation of (Qm)2
• We already know how to estimate (Qm)1
• For (Qm)2, let us assume the vapor is completely saturated with the
volatile. For partial saturation an adjustment is made later
IH - Control
• Control techniques – environmental control and personal protection
• Environmental control reduces exposure by reducing the
concentration of toxicants in the workplace environment.
• Eg – enclosures, local ventilation, dilution ventilation, wet methods
and good house keeping
• Personal protection prevents or reduces exposure by providing a
barrier between the worker and the workplace environment.
• Designing Control Methods – important and creative, should provide
desired control and should not create another hazard sometimes even
more hazardous than the original problem.
• Respirators should be used only
• On a temporary basis, until regular control methods can be implemented
• As emergency equipment, in the event of an accident
• As a last resort if environmental control methods are not satisfactory.
• Respirators can be used improperly and can be damaged to the extent that they
do not provide the needed protection.
• Fit testing, periodic inspection and record keeping
Ventilation
• For environmental control of airborne toxic materials
• Can quickly remove dangerous concentrations of flammable and toxic
materials.
• Can be highly localized, reducing the quantity of air moved and the
equipment size.
• equipment is readily available and easily installed.
• Equipment can be added to an existing facility
• Major disadvantage – operating costs
• Ventilation is based on two principles- dilute the contaminant below the
target concentration and remove the contaminant before workers are
exposed.
• Ventilation is two types – local and dilution ventilation
• Ventilation systems are composed of fans and ducts. A negative pressure
system is preferred to a positive pressure system
Local Ventilation - Hood
• Enclosed hood – completely contains the source of contaminant
• Exterior hood – continuously draws contaminants into an exhaust
from some distance away.
• Receiving hood – exterior hood that uses the discharge motion of the
contaminant for collection.
• Push-pull hood – uses stream of air from a supply to push
contaminants towards an exhaust system
Standard Hood Bypass Hood
• Advantages
 completely eliminate exposure to workers
 require minimal air flow
 serves as a containment device during fire and explosion
 provides a shield to the worker by means of sliding door on the
hood
• Disadvantages
limit workspace and can be used only for small scale, bench scale or
pilot plant equipment.
 Hood Calculations

Figure 3-7 Determining the total volumetric airflow

rate for a box-type hood.
For general operation a control velocity of between
80 and 120 feet per minute (fpm) is desired.
 Dilution Ventilation
• Necessary when the contaminant cannot be placed inside the hood or
must be used in an open area or room.
• Requires more air flow and operating expenses are high