Monitoring for Health Hazards at Work,: by Ashton and Gill, 0 632 05041 1, £27.50
2
Ann. occup. Hyg., Vol. 45, No. 5, pp. 419–420, 2001 2001 British Occupational Hygiene Society Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved Printed in Great Britain. 0003-4878/01/$20.00 Book Reviews PII S0003-4878(01)00009-6 Monitoring for Health Hazards at work By Ashton and Gill, 0 632 05041 1, £27.50 This is the third edition of the book first published in 1982, with a second edition in 1992. This edition keeps its original format and is based on a series of lecture notes and step-by-step guides to measuring dust, gases, vapours, heat, ventilation parameters, noise, light, radiation and micro-biologi- cal hazards. It has been updated in parts with new sections including assessment of wind chill factors, LEV inspections and vibration measurement. There is a complete new chapter on risk assessment. Much of the actual text is unchanged but the layout and presentation are a significant improvement on previous editions making each section easier to read and follow. The main strength of the book lies in its simple step-by-step guides to taking measurements, together with descriptions of equipment and checklists. This makes it a valuable text for students of occupational hygiene, others with an interest in measurement of the health hazards, and even a useful reference for more experienced practitioners. On the downside it is disappointing to find a num- ber of sections which have escaped the revision team. For example, noise dosimeters are described in terms of precision or industrial grade, terms which disap- peared many years ago and in fact are irrelevant as there is now only one single grade. In the Chapter on lighting, which includes a new section on measuring glare at DSE workstations, CIBSE standards are quoted for illumination levels but no reference to the more practical HSE recommendations in HSG 38. The heat Chapter continues to include a section on Corrected Effective Temperature rarely used in anger these days, but no reference to ISO 7730 or Dry Resultant Temperatures. Asbestos Control Limits are quoted but are already out of date. On a positive note, at last we have a photograph of a sampling train being worn with the sampling head closer to the breathing zone than the armpit! A completely new chapter is devoted to risk assess- ment. With a culture of risk assessment, formally established in the UK at least, a chapter on risk Received 5 January 2001; in final form 5 January 2001. 419 assessment and the role of monitoring is long over- due. However, the content is not consistent with the rest of the book. The assessment of risks posed by health hazards is correctly placed in the context of holistic health and safety risk assessments, but the chapter then pro- vides a general discourse on health and safety risk assessment rather than dealing specifically with health hazards—the raison d’etre of the book. Thus the chapter is littered with general health and safety risk jargon with risk ratings based on ‘probability’, ‘fre- quency’ and ‘severity of harm’ from ‘unwanted events’. Whilst used in the ‘safety’ field to deal with trips, falls and explosions such language is usually excessively cumbersome and tortuous when assessing health risks from, for example, exposure to noise, flour dust, and isocyanates. In the same vein the chapter covers not only risk assessment of the health hazards dealt with in the main text, i.e. chemicals, noise, light, radiation, but goes on to include electrical hazards, boiler explosions, slips and trips and falls. Perhaps the most revealing part of the chapter is the section on risk assessment of hazardous substances. The pre-assess- ment procedures are listed, i.e. gathering information on the hazardous nature of the substances together with control options. However the real meat of the actual risk assessment is glossed over by simply refer- ring the reader to a record form. This misses the opportunity of taking the logical step of using those techniques, admirably described in previous chapters, on providing information on levels of exposure, and how this should be interpreted and used with other information to assess risk. Thus the section could use- fully have included key risk factors, exposure limits, differences between MELs and OESs, substances with special risks such as carcinogens and sensitisers, chronic and acute effects, peak exposures and the role of skin absorption and ingestion. Overall, whilst the chapter does contain good sections it is a pity that it is not more focused on the main subject i.e. health hazards. Irrespective of the last chapter, this book should be high on the purchase list for new students of occu- pational hygiene practice as well as being a useful point of reference for experienced practitioners. It would also be of value for those involved in wider
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Transcript of Monitoring for Health Hazards at Work,: by Ashton and Gill, 0 632 05041 1, £27.50
Ann. occup. Hyg., Vol. 45, No. 5, pp. 419–420, 2001 2001 British Occupational Hygiene Society
Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reservedPrinted in Great Britain.
0003-4878/01/$20.00
Book Reviews
PII S0003-4878(01)00009-6
Monitoring for Health Hazards at work By Ashtonand Gill, 0 632 05041 1, £27.50
This is the third edition of the book first published in1982, with a second edition in 1992.
This edition keeps its original format and is basedon a series of lecture notes and step-by-step guidesto measuring dust, gases, vapours, heat, ventilationparameters, noise, light, radiation and micro-biologi-cal hazards. It has been updated in parts with newsections including assessment of wind chill factors,LEV inspections and vibration measurement. There isa complete new chapter on risk assessment.
Much of the actual text is unchanged but the layoutand presentation are a significant improvement onprevious editions making each section easier to readand follow.
The main strength of the book lies in its simplestep-by-step guides to taking measurements, togetherwith descriptions of equipment and checklists. Thismakes it a valuable text for students of occupationalhygiene, others with an interest in measurement ofthe health hazards, and even a useful reference formore experienced practitioners.
On the downside it is disappointing to find a num-ber of sections which have escaped the revision team.For example, noise dosimeters are described in termsof precision or industrial grade, terms which disap-peared many years ago and in fact are irrelevant asthere is now only one single grade. In the Chapter onlighting, which includes a new section on measuringglare at DSE workstations, CIBSE standards arequoted for illumination levels but no reference to themore practical HSE recommendations in HSG 38.The heat Chapter continues to include a section onCorrected Effective Temperature rarely used in angerthese days, but no reference to ISO 7730 or DryResultant Temperatures. Asbestos Control Limits arequoted but are already out of date.
On a positive note, at last we have a photographof a sampling train being worn with the samplinghead closer to the breathing zone than the armpit!
A completely new chapter is devoted to risk assess-ment. With a culture of risk assessment, formallyestablished in the UK at least, a chapter on risk
Received 5 January 2001; in final form 5 January 2001.
419
assessment and the role of monitoring is long over-due. However, the content is not consistent with therest of the book.
The assessment of risks posed by health hazardsis correctly placed in the context of holistic healthand safety risk assessments, but the chapter then pro-vides a general discourse on health and safety riskassessment rather than dealing specifically with healthhazards—the raison d’etre of the book. Thus thechapter is littered with general health and safety riskjargon with risk ratings based on ‘probability’, ‘fre-quency’ and ‘severity of harm’ from ‘unwantedevents’. Whilst used in the ‘safety’ field to deal withtrips, falls and explosions such language is usuallyexcessively cumbersome and tortuous when assessinghealth risks from, for example, exposure to noise,flour dust, and isocyanates.
In the same vein the chapter covers not only riskassessment of the health hazards dealt with in themain text, i.e. chemicals, noise, light, radiation, butgoes on to include electrical hazards, boilerexplosions, slips and trips and falls. Perhaps the mostrevealing part of the chapter is the section on riskassessment of hazardous substances. The pre-assess-ment procedures are listed, i.e. gathering informationon the hazardous nature of the substances togetherwith control options. However the real meat of theactual risk assessment is glossed over by simply refer-ring the reader to a record form. This misses theopportunity of taking the logical step of using thosetechniques, admirably described in previous chapters,on providing information on levels of exposure, andhow this should be interpreted and used with otherinformation to assess risk. Thus the section could use-fully have included key risk factors, exposure limits,differences between MELs and OESs, substanceswith special risks such as carcinogens and sensitisers,chronic and acute effects, peak exposures and the roleof skin absorption and ingestion. Overall, whilst thechapter does contain good sections it is a pity that itis not more focused on the main subject i.e. healthhazards.
Irrespective of the last chapter, this book should behigh on the purchase list for new students of occu-pational hygiene practice as well as being a usefulpoint of reference for experienced practitioners. Itwould also be of value for those involved in wider
420 Book Reviews
areas of health and safety, and others with an interestin monitoring the workplace. Whether it containsenough new information for those in possession of theprevious edition to warrant purchase is a moot point.
PII S0003-4878(01)00008-4
Occupational Health: Risk Assessment and Man-agement, By Steven S. Sadhra and Krishna G. Ram-pal. 0 632 04199 4, £79.50
Sadhra & Rampal have produced a step by step textof great value in “Occupational Health: Risk Assess-ment and Management.” As they state, risk assess-ment and management are of foremost importance inoccupational health and safety, as the cornerstone ofcurrent practice. Their book will be of value to allconcerned, from the small business making its firstattempts at appropriate risk assessment to thoseinvolved in established occupational health and safetydepartments in large organisations. This wide audi-ence suitability is achieved by the chapter and topicorganisation, with tight editing to avoid too much rep-etition. The text style is also easy to read with littleof the variation from chapter to chapter, which canmake other similar books difficult to read as progress-ive texts.
The chapters are neatly structured, starting appro-priately with the basic concepts (including hazardidentification and risk categorisation), which wouldcarry the novice along as the complexity and moredifficult issues (such as demonstrating compliancewith the law, auditing assessment and management)develop. The reasonably experienced practitioner
Received 1 December 2000; in final form 1 December 2000.
Alvin WoolleyAlvin J Woolley Associates, 17 King Harry Lane, St
Albans AL3 4AS, UK
could use the text partially for reference value andalso for educational, training and practical appli-cations. Several of the sections have structured mod-els for practice and examples of usable frameworks ordocuments (a particularly good section on emergencyresponse is an example of this). The last section ofthe book is devoted to some natural examples. Whilemost of these are case driven and interesting tobrowse, others are of potential widespread use(manual handling, display screen and vibration).Unfortunately some are disappointing in being toospecific (examples include “risk assessment and man-agement of asbestos in Malaysian industry” and“assessment of isocyanate exposure”). There are alsonotable omissions from this section (noise and alco-hol policies for example). In retrospect, this last groupof chapters may have been too ambitious an undertak-ing to be included within the book. To give completecoverage would have resulted in an exhaustive textof a size that might have been inhibiting.
Overall the book is well worth adding to the occu-pational health and safety library for large organis-ations, and is as near as I can imagine to the completetext for the small business.
Dr. Rob NivenNorth West Lung Centre, Wythenshawe Hospital,
Southmoor Road, Manchester M23 9LT, UK
