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Articles
Silica: Choosing the Optimal Sampler
By Lucinette Alvarado
Sponsored by SKC Inc.
When sampling airborne crystalline silica, choosing the right sampler is crucial. Exposure to respirable crystalline silica (RCS) has long been recognized as a health hazard, linked to severe lung diseases like silicosis, lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and kidney disease. Over the decades, OSHA, alongside other national and international organizations, has dedicated significant resources to reducing exposure and protecting workers. This article focuses on the tools you need for accurate sampling of airborne RCS and the primary considerations when choosing the optimal sampler.
Workflow and Compliance Technology
By Dan Baldauff
Sponsored by SKC
April 2022
For years, occupational and environmental health and safety professionals have relied on proven products and technologies to assess the exposure of workers to hazards. As technology has improved, so have the products that OEHS professionals use daily. Technological advances range from basic solutions such as direct-reading colorimetric sensors for contaminants on surfaces and skin to smart, wirelessly connected data-logging instruments that identify hazards in real time. Today’s OEHS professional has a growing number of responsibilities throughout an organization. New technology can help streamline workflows and improve compliance efforts.
Are Those the Right Gloves?
By Lucinette Alvarado
Sponsored by SKC
October 2020
Over the past eight years, there has been an increase in dermal injury and illness cases compared to respiratory-related occurrences per 10,000 full-time workers, while the rate of inhalation exposures has decreased. One main reason for these trends may be that exposure assessment in the workplace usually starts with air sampling for vapors and particulates, and results in implementation of controls for those airborne hazards. It is important to assess dermal exposures as significant contributors alongside inhalation exposures.
A Fresh Look at Surface and Dermal Sampling
By Debbie Dietrich
Sponsored by SKC
November 2019
Air sampling is the primary tool in the industrial hygiene toolbox for evaluating chemical exposures in the workplace. But hygienists are well advised to take a fresh look at surface and dermal sampling when the science warrants.
Passive Samplers in 2018: New Advances Lead to New Applications
By Debbie Dietrich
Sponsored by SKC
December 2018
Passive samplers have evolved in a manner that mirrors many advances in active samplers, expanding both their reliability and applications in industrial hygiene and environmental studies.
Sampling Solutions for Mixed-Phase Contaminants
By Debbie Dietrich
Sponsored by SKC
December 2017
Sampling mixed-phase contaminants in air is challenging. During sampling, it is possible that the distribution of the two phases may change: aerosol droplets may evaporate and vapors may condense.
A New Approach to Dust Monitoring
By Peter Briscoe
Sponsored by Nanozen
October 2017
A new approach to dust monitoring is starting to spread throughout the industrial hygiene field. It relates to the application of compact wearable products that simultaneously combine real-time direct dust count readings with traditional filter-based sample collections for composite analysis in the lab.
Regulating Legionella: Choosing an Analytical Method
By Christopher Goulah
Sponsored by EMSL Analytical, Inc.
April 2017
During the summer of 2015, a series of fatal legionellosis outbreaks forced the New York City (NYC) Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) to take emergency action to contain the rapid spread of the infection. After determining that the source of the outbreak was a centrally located cooling tower, emergency ordinances were put in place that mandated the disinfection of all cooling towers citywide.