Assignment

1. The placement of the industrial hygiene and safety functions in an organization's structure can greatly impact how successful the programs will be. Some organizations place health and safety programs under the human resources department. Other organizations place these programs under the plant manager or the production manager. If you were a safety officer for an organization, where would you place health and safety programs in the organizational structure? Explain why you believe this placement would work best for your organization.

2. You have been asked to perform a job hazard analysis (JHA) at your place of employment. Which method would you use to perform the JHA? Explain your choice.

3. Discuss a gas or vapor that you have dealt with in a workplace. Include information about how worker exposures were evaluated. If you have never had sampling for a gas or vapor performed in your workplace, review either the NIOSH Manual of Analytical Methods (NMAM) or the OSHA Sampling and Analytical Methods, and choose a vapor or gas that looks interesting to you.

4. The current OSHA permissible exposure limit (PEL) for nuisance dust is 15 mg/m3 as an 8-hour time-weighted average (TWA) exposure. The ACGIH has published a threshold limit value (TLV) for inhalable dust of 10 mg/m3. OSHA is required to consider economic and feasibility influences as well as health impacts for establishing or updating PELs. The ACGIH can consider only the health impacts when establishing TLVs. Imagine you are a safety officer having to establish an occupational exposure limit (OEL). Discuss how you would come to this exposure limit.

5. OSHA uses a 5 dBA exchange rate, meaning that the allowed exposure time is cut in half for every increase in exposure of 5 dBA. ACGIH and NIOSH recommend a 3 dBA exchange rate because noise energy exposure actually doubles every 3 dBA. OSHA explains the use of the 5 dBA exchange rate as a means to account for the time during a workday that the employee is not exposed to noise, like breaks. Imagine you are a safety officer who has to choose which exchange rate is preferable to use at your organization. Discuss in your journal entry whether the 5 dBA or the 3 dBA exchange rate should be used for controlling occupational noise exposure.

6. Imagine that you are a safety officer, and you have been asked to recommend a type of ventilation system for your company. Which one would you choose, and why?

7. OSHA allows respirator fit testing to be performed using either qualitative fit testing (QLFT) methods or quantitative fit testing (QNFT) methods that are specified in Appendix A of 29 CFR 1910.134. Discuss the fit testing methods with which you are familiar and which methods you prefer to use. If you have never been fit tested or performed fit testing, read Appendix A and discuss which of the methods you believe would be the easiest to perform. Give the reasons for your choice.,How can you apply what you learned in this course to your career or life success?