Occupational Health and Ergonomics Quiz

Occupational Health Engineering addresses applying engineering techniques to eliminate or control environmental agents or stresses in work environments that can cause impaired health.
The BCSP (Board of Certified Safety Professionals) divides the examination into six major areas.
- Process Design Parameters cover industrial process design, material selection, protective clothing and equipment, and exposure control.
- Industrial Ventilation covers methods for eliminating or controlling harmful exposures through ventilation designs.
- Noise Control Methods address equipment, enclosure design, acoustical materials, and methods to control noise exposures.
- Radiation Protection Design Parameters cover the design of facilities, equipment, and procedures to eliminate or control ionizing and non-ionizing radiation exposures.
- Personal Protective Clothing covers analysis and selection of personal protective clothing and administration of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) programs.
- Chemical Hazard Protection covers evaluation of chemical hazards and design of equipment, facilities, and processes to minimize or control chemical hazards and exposures.
Examples and solutions illustrating these areas are included throughout the document, focused mainly on applying formulae within the exam.

Sound is a wave phenomenon resulting from small pressure variations in the atmosphere.
Amplitude refers to the maximum value of a sinusoidal wave.
Frequency is the rate at which complete cycles occur, measured in Hertz (cycles per second).
Types of Noise Exposure:
- Continuous noise: approximately constant level and spectrum, over an eight-hour workday or 40-hour work week,
- Intermittent noise: a given broadband sound pressure level occurring multiple times over a typical workday.
- Impact noise: a sharp, brief burst of sound, less than half a second in duration.

Ionizing radiation is electromagnetic or particulate radiation that produces ions during interaction with matter.
Isotopes are different species of the same element, differing in the number of neutrons, some of which are stable, others radioactive (radioisotopes) and subject to radioactive decay
Types of Ionizing Radiation:
- Alpha particles: small, highly charged, and slow-moving particles composed of two protons and two neutrons expelled from radioactive materials.
- Beta particles: small, electrically charged particles identical to electrons ejected from radioactive materials.
- X-rays: highly penetrating radiation that originates from outside the nucleus.
- Neutrons: components of atomic nuclei, carry no electrical charge; used in nuclear reactions.
Units of Measurement
- Curie (Ci): a measure of the activity of radioactive material (3.7 x 10¹⁰ disintegrations per second).
- Rad: a measure of absorbed dose, 100 ergs of energy absorbed per gram of tissue.
- Rem: a measure of the dose of any ionizing radiation based on its biological effects.
- Various examples in the relevant formulas in the text are provided.

Toxic materials have adverse effects on normal physiological functions.
Toxicity can manifest as acute (short-term) or chronic (long-term) effects.
Routes of chemical entry into the body include ingestion, inhalation, skin absorption, eye absorption, and injection.
Dosage is the amount of chemical administered per unit of body weight.
Dose threshold is the minimum dose of a chemical to produce a measurable effect.
Lethal Dose (LD) and Lethal Concentration (LC) are chemical doses leading to 50% mortality in laboratory animals within a specified timeframe for a given route of entry, expressed in weight of chemical per weight of organism.
Corrosives are chemical agents that cause permanent tissue damage.
Asphyxiants reduce oxygen availability to tissues, categorized as simple (dilution) or chemical (interfering with O2 absorption).
Target organ chemicals attack specific organs regardless of entry route.

Ergonomics studies the compatibility between task requirements and human capabilities to improve work efficiency and safety.
Key knowledge areas include human senses, information processing, musculoskeletal system, design principles, environmental factors, and management aspects.
Application areas include visually displayed terminals, office ergonomics, workplace design, manual material handling, hand tool design, cumulative trauma disorders, job design, and work methods.
Control-display compatibility principles emphasize control/display positioning and grouping based on functions.

This section provides example questions on various occupational health topics and their relation to relevant formulas (e.g., industrial hygiene, diseases, radiation, chemical hazards, ventilation, ergonomics) to illustrate practical applications of previously given information.