STANDARDS AND MONITORING EQUIPMENT FOR WORKING ENVIRONMENT

STANDARDS AND MONITORING EQUIPMENT FOR WORKING ENVIRONMENT

1. Why is it important to monitor the working environment?

Within the working environment,there’re always potential health hazards and risks of injuries, according to the report of the Health Environment Management Agency, during the 5-year period from 2011 to 2016, the number of environmental monitoring samples at production facilities across the country did not meet the standards, which accounted for nearly 10% of the total 2,452,919 samples taken. Factors with continually highestfailure samplerate in 5 years includedweather (8.6%), radiation, electromagnetic field (23.25%), noise (16.53%), and light (12.04%).

Particularly for medical establishments (including hospitals, research institutes, testing institutes, pharmaceutical, and biological product manufacturing facilities, ...), due to the specific nature of their respective industries, employees must be regularly exposed to risks of microbiological hazards, especially HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, SARS, H5N1 as well as toxic chemicals...

At the same time, staff members working in the departments of radiology, nuclear medicine, laboratory, pathology, operating rooms, and infection control are also exposed to numerous harmful risk factors for health such as: radiation, electromagnetic field, ultrasound, anesthetic gases, disinfectant and pathological substance (formol, xylene, acid, alcohol,...) as well as other chemicals.

In addition, the adverse effects of closed house syndrome should be paid attention to (air-conditioned rooms). People working in enclosed spaces (operating room staff, laboratories) are at risk of exposure to toxic gases, solvents, and dust. Besides, for autoclave equipment, medical waste incinerators, waste treatment equipment, etc., there is a great risk of directly affecting the operator such as injuries, thermal burns, working posture...

Furthermore, not many units have performed the assessment of microbial exposure and ergonomy (relating to labor psychophysiology). Postures such as constant standing, lifting patients and bowing down cause muscle and joint problems. These positions are very commonly seen among medical staff in surgery, dentistry, otolaryngology, orthopedics, obstetrics, and gynecology as well as laborers, nurses, and midwives. Therefore, it requires to design suitable ergonomy for the working condition improvements of medical staff.

Consequently, the implementation of working environment monitoring is a necessary requirement todetect earlyrisks and take timely controlling measures to prevent injuries and occupational diseases.

2. Legal foundation for the working environment monitoring implementation

In the first place, the implementation of working environment monitoring at the workplace helps to control hazardous factors and protect employees' health. On the other hand, results from monitoring and evaluating exposure levels serve as a fundament for implementing the toxic allowance regime for employees according to the specific working features of that department. Moreover, the obligatory monitoring implementation is also stipulated in the following legal documents:

The Labor Code No. 10/2012/QH13 dated June 18, 2012 stipulates: employers are obliged to ensure the working environment and safety conditions; at the same time, inspect and evaluate dangerous and harmful factors at the workplace of the establishment in order to propose measures to eliminate and minimize hazards and harmful effects, improve working conditions and to give prominence workers’ healthcare (article 138).

Similarly, in the stipulation of the Law on Occupational Safety and Health No. 84/2015/QH13 dated June 25, 2015, Decree 39/2016/ND-CP dated May 15, 2017, employers are obliged toassess andcontrol dangerous and harmful factors at the workplace in order to propose technical measures for decontaminating and disinfecting. For harmful factors prescribed by the Minister of Health to limit exposure, the working environment must be monitored for assessment at least once a year. Units that perform the working environmentmonitoring must be equipped with sufficient facilities, materials, equipment, and human resources (Article 18 - Law on Occupational Safety and Health).

In addition, Decree No. 44/2016/ND-CP dated May 15, 2016 stipulates the monitoring content as well as the capacity requirements of the unit performing monitoring. Based on that, organizations inside and outside the health sector can accordingly select the monitoring unit, ensuring the accuracy and objectivity and having the report results recognized by the outside inspection unit.

3. Capability to perform working environment monitoring activities

The monitoring parameters and methods of measurement, sampling, and analysis have been recognized in accordance with ISO 17025 regulations, specifically, the performance criteria are as follows:

TQKT 2015: Technical Routines of Occupational and Environmental Health, Volume 1 "Vocational Health", Medicine Publishing House, 2015.

List of equipment for monitoring the above environmental parameters::

1.         Weather meter (temperature, humidity, and wind speed)

2.         Anemometer

3.         Solarimeter

4.         Light Meter

5.         Sound Level Meter

6.         Frequency Range Vibration Analyzer

7.         Electromagnetic Field (EMF) Meter (high frequency, low frequency)

88.      Low-Frequency Electromagnetic Field (EMF) Meter

9.         Radiometer (X-ray, α, β, γ)

10.       Particle Meter

11.       Digital Particle Meter

12.       Environmental Particle Meter

13.       Particle and Gas Sampling Meter30l/min (02 machines)

14.       PortableParticle and Gas Meter0 – 5 liters/min

15.       PortableParticle and Gas Sampling Meter0 – 5 liters/min

16.       CO2 Meter

17.       Phase Contrast Microscopy

18.       Alpha-beta Radioactivity Meter

19.       Gamma Emitting Radioisotope Analyzer (Analyzing System)

20.       Four-digit AnalyzingBalance

21.       Thermohygrometer

22.       Auto LoggerHygrometer

23.       Air Sampling Meter (air microbiological sample)

24.       Laboratory Refrigerator

25.       AAS Machine

26.       UV - VIS Spectrophotometer

27.       Four-digit AnalyzingBalance

28.       Benchtop pH Meter

29.       Portable pH Meter

30.       Five-digit AnalyzingBalance

31.       Graphite Furnace AAS Machine + Hydride Unit

32.       Ion Chromatograph

33.       Ion Chromatography

34.       High-Pressure Liquid Chromatograph Analyzer (HPLC-FD/UV)

35.       GC Gas Chromatography System

36.       Thermohygro Auto Data Logger

37.       Thermometer

38.       2-times Water Distillation Unit

39.       Ultra-clean Water Purifier

(The article is adapted from the original documents belonging to Faculty of Environmental Health - Ho Chi Minh City Institute of Public Health)