Knowra Occupational exposure Occupational exposure Occupational exposure is contact with a hazardous substance or condition arising from work. Its health effects depend on the hazard, route, intensity, duration, and timing of contact.
Exposure pathway : The route by which a hazard moves from its source to a person. Workplace contact occurs when a hazard travels from a source through a route to a worker.
Industrial hygiene : The practice of anticipating, recognizing, evaluating, and controlling workplace hazards that can affect health. Industrial hygiene organizes the assessment and control of occupational exposures.
Dose–response relationship : The relationship between the amount of a hazard received and the magnitude or likelihood of an effect. Exposure levels matter because many health effects vary with the dose received.
Occupational asthma : Asthma caused or worsened by substances or conditions encountered at work. Workplace sensitizers and irritants can cause new asthma or aggravate existing disease.
Occupational hazard : A workplace condition or agent with the potential to cause injury or illness. A hazard is the potential source of harm; exposure is contact with it.
Inhalation exposure : Contact with a substance through breathing it into the respiratory tract. Airborne dusts, fumes, vapors, and gases commonly expose workers by breathing.
Workplace air sampling : Collection and analysis of air samples to estimate workers’ exposure to airborne hazards. Sampling tests whether airborne workplace concentrations approach or exceed exposure limits.
Route of exposure : The way a substance enters or contacts the body, such as inhalation, ingestion, or skin absorption. The route helps determine how workplace contact becomes an internal dose.
Silicosis : A lung disease caused by breathing respirable crystalline silica dust. Silica exposure in activities such as stone cutting can produce progressive lung damage.
Absorbed dose : The amount of a substance taken into the body, often expressed relative to body mass. Contact at work does not by itself establish how much of a substance entered the body.
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