© 2005 British Occupational Hygiene Society Published by Oxford University Press
Book Review |
Occupational Hygiene (Third Edition). Kerry Gardiner and J. Malcolm Harrington (Editors). Oxford, Blackwell Publishing. £85, ISBN 1-4051-06210-2.
Workplace Environmental Solutions Ltd., 69 Manchester Road, Knutsford, Cheshire WA16 0LX, UK
This, the third edition of Occupational Hygiene, continues to be an excellent reference text for occupational hygienists new and old. When ‘Occupational Hygiene’ was first published in 1980, it contained 16 chapters. These covered the classic occupational hygiene subjects relevant to the field of occupational hygiene in the 1980s: subjects such as understanding how contaminants behave in the workplace, their assessment and control, as well as noise, thermal environment etc.
This first edition, edited by Waldron and Harrington, was an excellent reference source to the many subjects that occupational hygienists were challenged with. In particular, it was an excellent reference for the trainee occupational hygienist. The second edition, edited by Harrington and Gardiner, added a further 8 chapters, such as ergonomics, biological monitoring, retrospective exposure assessment and the structure and function of the skin. The third edition is now 32 chapters and has been brought up to date to meet the challenges faced by the occupational hygienist in the 21st century. As Kerry Gardiner describes in the book's preface, the world of work has changed. The classical occupational hygiene problems have not disappeared but there is now greater focus and awareness of musculoskeletal disorders and psychosocial problems. The revised edition recognizes this and includes additional chapters in these areas. However, the classic occupational hygiene topics have not been forgotten and none of the original material has been lost. As well as the additional material on musculoskeletal disorders and psychosocial problems, the third edition includes chapters on toxicology, risk assessment and dermal exposure assessment etc.
The book is now presented in six separate parts. Part 1, the ‘Introduction’ includes a chapter from Kerry Gardiner on occupational hygiene and how he sees the challenges of today and our future contribution. In addition, Bengt Knave provides a chapter on ‘Global strategies and trends in occupational health: well-being at work in focus.’
Part 2, ‘Organ structure and function and the adverse effects of work’, provides several chapters covering topics we have seen before, such as those on the lung, the skin and the effect of inhaled particles on our bodies, as well as the effects of physical agents. In addition, there are now chapters on musculoskeletal disorders and a chapter written by HSE regulatory toxicologists on toxicology. This chapter introduces basic toxicology, how information on toxic effects is obtained and used for hazard identification and standard setting.
Part 3 covers the principles of occupational hygiene, from the nature and properties of workplace contaminants to epidemiology. It includes a chapter on risk assessment by Steve Sadhra. This discusses many of the modern concepts that were not familiar when this book was first conceived; cost benefit analysis, the existing substances regulations and the tolerability of risk.
Part 4, Environmental hazards: principles and methods of their assessment, updates many of the topics that have been in the book since the first edition; sampling of aerosols, gases and vapours, noise, vibration, lighting, thermal environment, and non-ionizing and ionizing radiation etc. It also includes a chapter on biological agents by Julia M. Greig and Chris J. Ellis. This chapter considers biological agents as causes of disease associated with occupations in four groups, agricultural and allied workers, occupational travel, health-care workers and microbiology workers. For each, it provides a description of the relevant diseases and agents, for example, brucellosis, malaria and HIV. Anne Spurgeon provides a chapter on psychological issues, in which she talks about the problems with defining stress, its causes, effects on health and, its assessment and control. There are also chapters from Joanne Crawford on ‘The development of ergonomics as a scientific discipline’ and from John Cherrie on ‘Dermal exposure assessment’.
Part 5, ‘Allied and emerging issues’, provides a chapter by Richard Booth and Anthony Boyle on occupational accident prevention. It looks at reactive and pro-active safety management, and behavioural safety. Part 6, ‘Control’, includes a chapter by Tom Cox, Amanda Griffiths and Stavroula Leka on work organization and work-related stress. Chapters on control philosophy, ventilation and personal protective equipment remain in this edition. There is also a chapter by Lawrence Waterman and Karen Baxter on occupational health and hygiene management. This looks at the organizational environment, the elements of an integrated programme, the role of stakeholders and the role of leadership, in achieving a healthy and present workforce.
The third edition of ‘Occupational Hygiene’ is an excellent reference text for occupational hygienists, allowing those just entering the profession, and those long established, to be able to readily access the up-to-date theory and practice behind much of what we do, particularly with the ever-changing challenges we face.
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