Ann. occup. Hyg., Vol. 47, No. 2, pp. 174, 2003
© 2003 British Occupational Hygiene Society
Published by Oxford University Press
Book Review |
Fundamentals of Industrial Hygiene
Institute of Occupational Medicine, Roxburgh Place, Edinburgh EH8 9SU, UK
Received 9 October 2002; in final form 1 November 2002
Fundamentals of Industrial Hygiene, 5th edn. Barbara A. Plog and Patricia J. Quinlan (Editors). National Safety Council. ISBN 0-87912-216-1 ($150.95 for non-NSC members)
Fundamentals of Industrial Hygiene is an American textbook, which is also available on CD-ROM, that is intended to provide a reference for those who either have an interest in or a direct responsibility for the recognition, evaluation and control of occupational health hazards. The editors have set themselves the unenviable task of aiming the book at a wide target audience, including occupational hygienists, occupational hygiene students, physicians, nurses, safety personnel, labour organizations, government agencies and others.
The book is a rather weighty tome of over 1000 pages that is organized into seven parts, each of which should stand alone as a reference source. The sections include an overview of occupational hygiene; anatomy, physiology and pathology; recognition of hazards; evaluation of hazards; control of hazards; occupational health and safety professions; government regulations and their impact. Several appendices are also included, for example, details of additional information resources (nearly all American), ACGIH Threshold Limit Values and Biological Exposure Indices (which are already dated because they are the 2001 values), as well as instructions on conversion of units and a glossary, both of which are very useful. The fifth edition includes new chapters on airborne particulates, dilution ventilation of industrial workplaces, respiratory protection, the occupational medicine physician and the occupational health nurse; the other chapters have been extensively updated and revised.
Overall the book is fairly well laid out, guiding the reader logically through the material in a style that is easy to follow. However, there are several instances where the structure appears muddled. For example, chapters concerned with the anatomy, physiology and pathology of skin and eyes also discuss methods of prevention and control, which would be better located in the control section of the book. There are many illustrations and black and white photographs; however, some of these were obtained from sources dating back to the 1970s or 1980s, with the quality of many being very poor and giving a somewhat dated feel to the book. In some instances several very similar figures are included to illustrate points where one would have sufficed. There are also figures unnecessarily repeated in more than one chapter of the book, and instances where the illustration adds little to the text.
The book does cover most of the fundamentals of occupational hygiene very well, although there are instances where it briefly skims over topics of interest and devotes entire chapters to others, which although interesting, were probably outside its scope. For example, although the section concerned with recognition of hazards is very good with whole chapters devoted to issues such as ergonomics, biological hazards, etc., it is puzzling that vibration is only dealt with in a few paragraphs interspersed throughout the book. Psychological issues and stress are also only discussed in a couple of paragraphs. Although these are relatively new areas of interest to occupational hygienists, they are gaining greater prominence within the profession and warrant further discussion. The chapter dealing with the anatomy, physiology and pathology of the eyes also includes in-depth information on how to clinically evaluate vision loss. While interesting, generally this would be dealt with by an occupational health nurse or physician, and I do not agree that this is a fundamental part of occupational hygiene. Also, a whole chapter is devoted to the history of the federal occupational safety and health administration (1970–2001) although I am not convinced that the target audience really needs such in-depth information.
It is very ambitious to attempt to produce a textbook capable of covering the fundamentals of occupational hygiene for such a wide range of users. There is no doubt as to the value of this textbook to those in the United States, although from a European perspective not all information is applicable, and I would have preferred greater emphasis on certain key issues previously mentioned. This should not detract from the usefulness of this book for occupational hygiene students and practitioners; however, overall I am of the opinion that other texts are available that better serve the purpose intended.
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