The Importance of Occupational Hygiene

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1.2 The Importance of Occupational Hygiene

Whilst a brief examination of the history and trends in occupational hygiene shows a general improvement in both our understanding and control of health risks there are still many issues to be tackled. Increasing industrial activity in developing countries means that there are more people exposed worldwide. Technological advancements also mean that new hazards are being introduced into the workplace. The World Health Organisation estimates that globally there are:  2,000,000 work-related deaths per year, with disease responsible for the vast majority of these, but even this are likely to be a considerable underestimate of the true number of deaths because of shortcomings in the available data.  386,000 deaths each year from exposure to airborne particulates. asthma: 38,000; COPD: 318,000; pneumoconioses: 30,000. This amounts to nearly 6.6 million DALYs asthma: 1,621,000; COPD: 3 733 000, pneumoconioses: 1,288,000 due to exposure to occupational airborne particulates.  152,000 deaths per year from carcinogens in the workplace. lung cancer: 102,000; leukaemia: 7,000; malignant mesothelioma: 43,000 and nearly 1.6 million DALYs lung cancer: 969,000; leukaemia: 101,000; malignant mesothelioma: 564,000 due to exposure to occupational carcinogens.  37 of Lower Back Pain is attributed to occupation, with two-fold variation across regions. Work-related Lower Back Pain was estimated to cause 818,000 DALYs lost annually. COPD = Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease which is chronic bronchitis and emphysema, a pair of two commonly co-existing diseases of the lungs in which the airways become narrowed DALYs = Disability Adjusted Life Years - The sum of years of potential life lost due to premature mortality and the years of productive life lost due to disability. 17 Source http:www.who.intquantifying_ehimpactsglobalen accessed February 2010. The relative importance of occupational hygiene can be illustrated by comparing statistics about incidence of accidents with that of ill health. In the UK the number of deaths due to work related activities is approximately 250. This may be compared to the number of deaths due to road traffic accidents which is approximately 2500. However, the number of deaths each year due to work related cancer and respiratory disease is estimated at 12,000. This gives a ratio of 1:10:48. 18 2 HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY AND INDUSTRIAL DISEASES The human body is a complex organism which can be affected greatly by chemical and physical hazards; the body also has many ways of regulating itself when exposed to hazards. In order to control the risks to the body it is necessary to have an understanding of how it works, and the kinds of harm that can occur as a result of exposure.

2.1 Skin