Industrial hygienists should take active roles in educating management concerning environmental stresses in places of work and the means for their control. Alert management can bring pending processes and production changes to the attention of industrial hygienists for study and follow‐up, thus avoiding potential increased risks of inadvertent occurrences of health problems.
4.4 Integration of Total Worker Exposure and Health Concepts into Industrial Hygiene Practice
An important new development in the practice of industrial hygiene is the increased understanding of the ability and need to address the well‐being and health of workers within their homes, communities, and environment. This means understanding an individual worker's exposures in the workplace within the context of other exposures that they may experience in their communities or in the course of hobbies or other household exposures. This concept has been developed and assessed by NIOSH and is known as TWH. According to NIOSH, “TWH is a holistic approach to worker well‐being. It acknowledges risk factors related to work that contribute to health problems previously considered unrelated to work. The TWH approach seeks to improve well‐being in the American workforce for the benefit of workers, employers, and the nation by protecting safety and enhancing health and productivity” (https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/twh). TWH has important implications for the practice of industrial hygiene, particularly in the areas of exposure and risk assessment. As a practical matter for industrial hygienists, one part of the TWH conceptual model that is most relevant to IH practice is the exposures that occur in the various environments through which workers move throughout their daily routine, including home, work, nonoccupational activities, and the community. AIHA has characterized this aspect of TWH as Total Worker Exposure and has identified this area as a content development priority for the association (https://synergist.aiha.org/201601-beyond-exposure).
Very similar to the Total Worker Exposure topic is the notion of the Exposome, a term which has been increasingly used and studied in recent years, and which is defined by NIOSH as “the measure of all the exposures of an individual in a lifetime and how those exposures relate to health. An individual's exposure begins before birth and includes insults from environmental and occupational sources” (https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/exposome/default.html). NIOSH has noted that the “exposome provides an opportunity to understand occupational diseases and how to prevent them” (https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/exposome/default.html). Further, NIOSH notes the importance of contributions to research in occupational epidemiology, sampling techniques with increased sensitivity, the evaluation of biomarkers, and the development and improvement of exposure‐related data sources and databases as important tools to better understand the Exposome and Total Worker Exposure over time (https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/twh).
4.5 The Growth in Management Systems for Occupational and Industrial Hygiene
Many different management systems such as the Chemical Industry Responsible Care® initiative now in place in over 40 countries and regions of the world and International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standards 14001 (environmental management) and 45001 (health and safety management) provide a roadmap for companies to use to apply good practices to protect both their local communities and worker health, therefore, contributing to the long‐term financial health of their industry.
4.6 Indoor Air Quality
Indoor air quality became more prevalent as more jobs transitioned from being more agricultural to more indoor operations. It is estimated that people spend 90% of their time in indoor environments, such as residential and office buildings, schools, transportation vehicles, and workplaces (68). Indoor air quality can have an impact on health and quality of life through health hazards from chemicals such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs), tobacco smoke, formaldehyde, particulate matter, and ozone. Combustion and burning of biomass products, including wood, leaves, and animal dung used for cooking and heating in many developing countries have led to poor indoor air quality and respiratory effects (69). Indoor air quality problems can be exceedingly complex and it can be a challenge to find acceptable solutions. Attention to “toxic mold” issues in the early 2000s contributed to increased attention to much more substantial nosocomial infection risks in US health care facilities. Occupational hygienists with specialized expertise may be needed to assess and address indoor air quality issues that are related to chemical or biological contamination, and such professionals may additionally need to be familiar with specific mold evaluation and remediation procedures within specific built environments.
4.7 Emergency Preparedness and Response
Emergency responders and community members are at risk for exposures to hazards during response and recovery to natural and man‐made disasters such as oil spills, hurricanes, floods, tsunamis, earthquakes, and wildfires. Occupational hygienists' roles and responsibilities during these events can be very broad. These roles may include, but are not limited to training, selection of proper personal protective equipment, mold remediation supervision, exposure assessment, risk communication, hazardous waste material management, and decontamination.
4.8 Evolution of Occupational and Industrial Hygiene Ethics
As industrial hygiene became a distinct and recognized profession, it became evident that ethical standards would be appropriate to help to guide the practice. In 1991, the ABIH, the AIHA, the Academy of Industrial Hygiene (AIH), and the ACGIH chartered the Code of Ethics Task Force, whose charge was to (i) review and revise the industrial hygiene code of ethics and to supplement it with supporting interpretive guidelines, and (ii) recommend methods to educate members about ethical conduct and to recommend disciplinary procedures and mechanisms for enforcement. A new code was developed and addressed industrial hygienists' responsibilities to the profession, to workers, to employers and clients, and to the public and was nonenforceable (merely aspirational). In addition, this new Code of Professional Ethics for the Practice of Industrial Hygiene comprised six canons with interpretive guidelines was adopted in 1995 (https://synergist.aiha.org/201601-beyond-exposure). The canons of ethical conduct require industrial hygienists to (i) practice their profession by applying scientific principles; (ii) counsel affected parties regarding risks and protective measures; (iii) keep information obtained confidential except under special circumstances; (iv) avoid compromise of professional judgment and conflict of interest situations; (v) practice only in their areas of competence; and (vi) uphold the integrity of the profession.
Beginning in 2006, a Joint Ethics Task Force was established and consisted of representatives of the four original chartering organizations (AIHA, ACGIH, AIH, and ABIH), the Joint Industrial Hygiene Ethics Education Committee (JIHEEC), and an attorney specializing in professional codes of ethics. The primary goal of this task force was to revise and renew the current code of ethics, with a special emphasis placed upon enforcement. The need to sharpen and refine code language and wording was considered a key component of the task force's mission.
Overall, two new codes were approved and presented to the general membership at the June 2007 AIHce in Philadelphia. The membership‐based organizations (AIHA, ACGIH, and AIH) moved away from enforcement and toward education, delegating the role of enforcement to ABIH (70). The general set of guidelines adopted by AIHA, ACGIH, and AIH were intended to help all association members understand their ethical responsibilities. The primary goal of these principles was to educate members, the profession, and the public about acceptable behavior norms in harmony with ABIH requirements, rather than to create a disciplinary system.
Both the ABIH Code of Ethics and the membership‐based