Playing Industrial Hygiene to Win

Abstract

ITEM — Numerous workers become sensitized to toluene diisocyanate (TDI) at a plant manufacturing foam automobile seats. Personal air sampling conducted by corporate industrial hygienists consistently shows levels of TDI to be within all legal and recommended standards. ITEM — Dozens of workers in a new office building suffer eye, nose and throat irritation. Vendors who supplied the furniture, partitions and carpeting all reveal that they used formaldehyde in their products. Air samples collected by an indoor air quality consultant, however, show formaldehyde levels in compliance with the new Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standard. ITEM — Workers at a construction site become ill and bulk samples of the soil reveal high levels of phenols and many other chemicals. Industrial hygienists from OSHA collect personal air samples but can find no violations of OSHA's Permissible Exposure Limits (PELs). ITEM — Machinery noise levels at a carburetor rebuilding factory create stressful working conditions and damage workers' hearing. An OSHA industrial hygienist measures noise levels high enough for management to require workers to wear ear plugs but not high enough to require management to quiet the machinery.