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Each year, thousands of workers throughout the world are killed, injured, or otherwise adversely affected by chemical, biological, and/or physical, agents encountered in the workplace. Common hazards include dusts, gases and vapors, bio-aerosols, pathogens, noise, and ionizing and non-ionizing radiation. Ergonomic stresses and safety hazards are also important causes of workplace morbidity and mortality. The goal of this course is to educate individuals to anticipate, recognize, evaluate, control, and manage such workplace health risks.
This course is a survey of the technical and regulatory aspects of protecting the health and safety of workers. Topics include basic toxicology; skin, eye, and respiratory hazards; measuring hazardous atmospheres; ventilation systems; fire and explosion hazards; emergency response; noise-induced hearing loss in the workplace; radiation; accident prevention; cumulative trauma; and personal protective equipment. The course provides students with an introduction to the principles and practice of industrial hygiene. Industrial hygiene is concerned with the anticipation, recognition, evaluation and control of environmental and occupational factors that pose hazards to health and safety in the workplace. These aspects parallel the basic components of risk assessment: hazard identification, dose-response determination, exposure assessment, risk assessment, and risk management. Greater attention is focused on anticipation, recognition, and evaluation, but some consideration of control methods and hazard communication will also be included. These functions all require a sound understanding of basic toxicology, procedures for investigation, methods of exposure measurement and assessment, behavior of chemical and physical agents in the environment, and the application of guidelines and standards, topics which form the primary elements of the course.
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