CURRENT ISSUE
BIOLOGICAL HAZARDS
Bloodborne Pathogens Outside of Healthcare Settings
When you think of bloodborne pathogens, it’s easy to visualize a medical setting bustling with nurses and physicians and the occasional phlebotomist with a cart full of needles and syringes. But what about bloodborne pathogens that may be present in workplaces outside the realm of healthcare?
IH PROGRAM MANAGEMENT
Remote Industrial Hygiene: Emerging Challenges, Promising Solutions
How can industrial hygienists best protect workers involved in oil and gas operations, mining facilities, crews for ships and planes, and scientific expeditions?
IAQ-Related Comfort Complaints
Indoor air quality is a complex subject with many facets. One difficulty that confronts industrial hygienists when they get an IAQ complaint is determining whether it’s a comfort issue or a health issue.
INDOOR AIR QUALITY
BACTERIA AND VIRUSES
No Boundaries
From the April 2018 issue: As the incidence of highly hazardous communicable diseases continues to rise, all relevant professionals, including industrial hygienists, should be involved in prevention efforts, training and education for occupations with potential exposure, and advocacy for increased federal support.
PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
Taking AIHce EXP to the Next Level
AIHA's president discusses the transformation of the association's annual conference and AIHA's endeavors to create future conferences that draw consistently higher attendance and deliver unprecedented value to all stakeholders.
BY THE NUMBERS
Wildfire Consequences
In December, as the world turned its attention to the bushfires ravaging Australia, the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine published a report on an earlier disaster: the California wildfires of 2017 and 2018.
SPONSORS
DUST
A New Tool for Preventing Combustible Dust Incidents
Central to the 2019 edition of NFPA 652, Standard on the Fundamentals of Combustible Dust, is the requirement for owners or operators of facilities with potentially combustible dust to conduct a Dust Hazard Analysis.
2020 AIHA ELECTION
AIHA Candidates' Forum
Each year, The Synergist asks candidates for the AIHA Board of Directors to participate in a candidates’ forum. Their responses appear in the magazine. This year’s ballot includes two candidates for vice president, two for secretary-elect, and four for director.
FROM THE ARCHIVES
HEALTHCARE
Protecting Home Healthcare Aides
From the April 2019 issue: Providing care in the home is one of the most cost-effective and efficient mechanisms for maintaining patient health, but home healthcare workers are among the most vulnerable workers in the United States.
CHEMICAL AND MATERIAL HAZARDS
Electronic Cigarettes and the IH
From the May 2019 issue: AIHA’s white paper on e-cigarettes was recently updated to discuss the latest research on e-cigarette hazards. How should industrial hygienists and safety and health professionals address the occupational and public health concerns associated with e-cigarettes?
Although the print version of The Synergist indicated The IAQ Investigator's Guide, 3rd edition, was already published, it isn't quite ready yet. We will be sure to let readers know when the Guide is available for purchase in the AIHA Marketplace.
My apologies for the error.
- Ed Rutkowski, Synergist editor
Disadvantages of being unacclimatized:
- Readily show signs of heat stress when exposed to hot environments.
- Difficulty replacing all of the water lost in sweat.
- Failure to replace the water lost will slow or prevent acclimatization.
- Increased sweating efficiency (earlier onset of sweating, greater sweat production, and reduced electrolyte loss in sweat).
- Stabilization of the circulation.
- Work is performed with lower core temperature and heart rate.
- Increased skin blood flow at a given core temperature.
- Gradually increase exposure time in hot environmental conditions over a period of 7 to 14 days.
- For new workers, the schedule should be no more than 20% of the usual duration of work in the hot environment on day 1 and a no more than 20% increase on each additional day.
- For workers who have had previous experience with the job, the acclimatization regimen should be no more than 50% of the usual duration of work in the hot environment on day 1, 60% on day 2, 80% on day 3, and 100% on day 4.
- The time required for non–physically fit individuals to develop acclimatization is about 50% greater than for the physically fit.
- Relative to the initial level of physical fitness and the total heat stress experienced by the individual.
- Can be maintained for a few days of non-heat exposure.
- Absence from work in the heat for a week or more results in a significant loss in the beneficial adaptations leading to an increase likelihood of acute dehydration, illness, or fatigue.
- Can be regained in 2 to 3 days upon return to a hot job.
- Appears to be better maintained by those who are physically fit.
- Seasonal shifts in temperatures may result in difficulties.
- Working in hot, humid environments provides adaptive benefits that also apply in hot, desert environments, and vice versa.
- Air conditioning will not affect acclimatization.
Acclimatization in Workers