Discussion Question's

1. Imagine that you have been recently employed as a safety officer for a particular organization; however, you have not had much training or experience in industrial hygiene. How do you think you would approach industrial hygiene needs within your organization? Where could you go to get help with industrial hygiene needs?

2. Take a few moments to reflect on what you know about the relationship between exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke and lung cancer. Now, think about Bradford Hill's criteria for causation, and use it to evaluate the strength of the relationship between them. Based on Hill's criteria, do you believe that the strength of the relationship is as strong as you have been led to believe? Why, or why not?

3. Imagine that you are an industrial hygienist or a safety officer at an organization. Describe how you would determine which occupational exposure limits (OELs) should be applied at your workplace. Should you use the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) permissible exposure limits (PELs), the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) threshold limit values (TLVs), or the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) recommended exposure limits (RELs)? Explain which one you would choose and why.

4. Think about your current or former place of employment. What are some chemical and/or biological hazards that you might have come in contact with there? If you had been or were currently an industrial hygienist or safety officer at the organization in question, how would go about ensuring that the health effects of those hazards were properly mitigated?