The industrial hygiene is the set of procedures to control environmental factors that can affect health in the workplace. Health is understood to be the complete physical, mental and social well-being.
Industrial hygiene, therefore, must identify, evaluate and, if necessary, eliminate biological, physical and chemical agents found within a company or industry that can cause illness in workers.
Specifically, we can establish that any industrial hygiene practice is responsible for three different kinds of situations: the first studies that are undertaken within the workplace to assess what is exposure to risks, control and surveillance of the follow-up, and the final evaluation for what are the various epidemiological studies.
This issue is particularly important in those productive sectors that involve the handling of pollutants. For example: a company dedicated to the dyeing of pants must take special precautions with the chemicals it uses in its daily processes. Workers, on the other hand, must have adequate protection in their clothing.
In this sense, we have to state that the work of the industrial hygienist is fundamental, therefore, as he will be in charge of identifying the different risks to which a person is exposed in his field of work, anticipating possible risks while advising on how to avoid them, evaluate the various work methods, participate in the analysis of occupational risk or train and educate individuals about the risks.
The companies have to carry out periodic sampling and measurements to verify the level of pollutants in the environment. Therefore, it requires the services of a laboratory capable of assessing the results obtained to ensure that the industrial environment is not harmful to health.
In its broadest sense, industrial hygiene also includes the study of sound levels or lighting in buildings, among other issues. Exposure to very loud sounds or lack of light to work can affect the worker's hearing and eyes. Health, therefore, also depends on these factors.
We must emphasize that there is also the Spanish Association of Industrial Hygiene (AEHI), which has among its main objectives to significantly improve the different workplaces through the elimination or reduction of the risks to which they are exposed. employees with regard to their exposure to certain chemical or biological agents, among others.
In this way, to achieve the aforementioned purpose and many more, this entity carries out a series of actions such as, for example, the organization of events on the matter, to ensure that it becomes an information exchange center and opinions on industrial hygiene.
It should be noted that the essence of industrial hygiene is preventive, since its main objective is to guarantee the well-being of the job by preventing it from getting sick.