Occupational Hygiene Hazards: How Exposed Are We?

Australian workers are regularly exposed to occupational hygiene hazards. Long term exposure can create serious diseases such as black lung disease for coal miners, permanent damage to hearing, spinal and back pain as a result of the impact of vibration by working on machines and using larger hand operated tools and poisoning through handling chemicals. Any one of these on their own can cause a serious reduction to health and long term disability as workers age, but the Safe Work Australia findings from the National Hazard Exposure Worker Surveillance (NHEWS) survey show that it is not uncommon for workers to receive multiple co-exposures. Read on: