Jargon

When you’ve been working in a particular profession for a while its easy to forget how confusing terminology can be. I find that although we take for granted what is meant by “local” and “general” ventilation, the meaning is not necessarily obvious to someone new to occupational hygiene or to non-specialists, such as managers and

Selecting chemical protective gloves

We received the following message this week “During one of the modules I remember (Mike) showed us a chart with different types of gloves for different uses. I’m not sure if it was a 3M chart.  Is it possible to please ask him he can send me the link.” The publication I showed during the course

When the “right” glove is the wrong glove

There are many situations where people at work can have direct skin contact with chemicals, particularly hand contact. It is often taken for granted that tasks such as cleaning will involve wiping down with cloths, or something similar, soaked with a solvent or other chemical which are held in the hand. Many of these chemicals

Stack Heights

When designing and testing local exhaust ventilation systems we need to pay particular attention to the design of the extraction hoods – where the contaminant enters the system. If this isn’t right then the system is unlikely to be effective at controlling contaminants. However, this doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t ensure that other aspects of