Who Needs an Environmental Hygienist?

For example, agricultural workers are far more likely to come into contact with pesticides than an auto worker, but the auto worker is far more likely to deals with solvents. While a good environmental hygienist can migrate from industry to industry, perhaps more than any other profession, the person possessing a background in the industry is far more valuable than one who is unfamiliar with the type of work involved.

The typical tasks associated with working as an industrial hygienist include:

• Responding to worker exposure concerns.
• Hazard Communication and HAZMAT training.
• Conducting scientific research on possible harmful conditions in the workplace.
• Developing controls for protecting workers and the community from potentially dangerous situations and substances.
• Conducting air quality sampling.
• Evaluating and controlling environmental lead, mercury, asbestos and other hazardous material exposure.
• Development of emergency response plans.
• Prevention of occupational diseases (mesothelioma, tuberculosis, silicosis).
• Detection and response to potentially hazardous agents such as asbestos, pesticides, and radon gas.
• Prevention of Cumulative Trauma Disorders (repetitive stress injuries, carpal tunnel syndrome).
• Protection from radiation (electromagnetic fields, microwaves).
• Identification of reproductive health hazards in the workplace.
• Establishing limits on exposure to chemical and physical agents.
• Detection and control of potential occupational hazards such as noise, radiation, and illumination.
• Hazardous waste management.

CONSIDERATIONS FOR HIRING
As you determine whether or not your organization needs an environmental hygienist instead of a safety generalist, or some other safety specialists you should consider:

Population. How large is your operation? If you are a small operation (less than 500 employees) you may be better served by outsourcing the duties of an environmental hygienist to an environmental services provider. These firms are usually able to meet the needs of a smaller operation. All other factors being equal the decision whether or not your population warrants its own environmental hygienist comes down to basic cost-benefit analysis – will it cost you more to hire a full time employee to do this work or is it more cost effective to outsource the services?

On the other hand, if you are a large manufacturer, you may need an environmental hygiene presence in addition to a more mainstream safety presence. That being said, even some very large organizations have moved to regionalized environmental hygiene functions that provide services to multiple sites.

Processes. If your processes routinely use or produce hazardous materials you may wish to consider hiring a full time environmental hygienist. Many organizations in industries with a higher than average presence of hazardous materials will hire an environmental hygienist to function in the role of the safety manager simply because the skillset of an environmental hygienist  is a better fit if the environmental hazards endemic to the industry make a background in chemistry and biology a necessity.