ABSTRACT
Control is central to working safely with processes and chemicals hazardous to a worker’s health, but remains the area least understood and most poorly implemented in many workplaces. Enclosed buildings and the built environment produce a range of occupational health hazards ranging from volatile organic compounds arising from office equipment such as printers and photocopiers to gases given off by building products, carbon dioxide build-up from exhaled air, and microbiological hazards. Occupational hygiene can be considered as the fundamental process skill required for achieving good health outcomes in workplaces where there are chemical, biological and physical agents. It is often difficult to recognise health hazards in workplaces, and historically it has been difficult to control workplace conditions so as to achieve acceptable health outcomes even when the problems are identified. Humans have no natural protection against extreme exposures to any of these hazards, which help make many workplaces potentially unhealthy.
