Occupational Hazards Related to Heavy Metal Poisoning
Injuries or Workplace Hazards Related
Workplace hazards related to heavy metal poisoning include death, sensitization, lung or skin disease, and kidney damage. Although healthcare organizations exist to improve the health or patients, employees in the care system are not free certain health risks or toxic injury while at work. In addition to the concern of air quality, cleaning products, and the use of pesticides, healthcare facilities have unique risks of toxic harm. For instance, some equipment used in the hospital are metallic or contain metallic elements. As such, they pose chemical hazards like thermometers that have mercury liquid. Sterilization equipment has ethylene oxide and glutaraldehyde, which are harmful. Anesthetic gases can leak during procedures and cause dizziness, miscarriages, cancer, liver, or kidney problem. Mercury is the most common heavy metal in the workplace, like healthcare facilities. The element is contained in healthcare products like gastro-intestinal devices, pharmaceutical products, dental filling, lab chemicals like reagents or preservatives, batteries, fluorescent light bulbs, and boiler switch. Any contact with such an element is a hazard issue (Ara & Usmani, 2015). Healthcare facilities are known to be among the many sources of releasing mercury into the atmosphere. A fever thermometer, for example, contains traces of mercury sufficient to contaminate medium-sized water sources that are unfit for consumption by women at childbearing age. Employees in hospitals work with mercury-based products and hence in danger to inhale toxic vapor in case of leakages. Spilled mercury can as well be tracked on footwear, exposing other staff. Additionally, a broken fluorescent lamp in a small room is sufficient to release mercury vapor that exceeds federal OSHA requirements.
Exposure to injuries or workplace hazards related to heavy metal causes health effects on the body, like damaging the functioning of organs such as brains, lungs, or liver. Heavy metal toxicity has acute to chronic effects (Collado, 2015). Long term exposure to heavy metals at places of work progressively leads to physical, muscular, and neurological degeneration effect, which is similar to Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s disease. Environmental factors associated with these hazards include manufacturing processes in the community that releases a chemical into air, land, or water. In environmental areas where welding, cutting, and heating, if metallic material is performed, there is an excellent contribution of toxicity hazards from fumes or gases released during work.
Methods for Preventing these Hazards
The first approach to prevent workplace hazards associated with heavy metal toxicity is conducting an exposure assessment. Occupational exposure modeling allows detection and predicts exposure to chemicals with the use of environmental or physiological factors. Organizations can apply mathematical models to determine the rate or exposure to airborne pollutants. In that frame, a variety of approaches will be used to predict the concentration of air pollutants and guide the right measures to take. For instance, when high concertation of heavy metal is detected in air, it is easy to locate sources like mercury vapor from light bulbs or gaseous products. As such, proper ventilation is provided in the room.
The second approach is to determine workers at risk. In the case of health workers in hospitals, their exposure to hazards can be prevented once they are adequately identified and evaluated. In the evolution process, the essence is to determine the rate and instances of exposure, which informs the next course of actions like availing protective equipment (PPEs) (Hasan, Saeed & Choudhary, 2015). Third, workplace hazards are recorded, reviewed at least regularly to keep track of a healthy working environment and employees’ safety. Another preventive method is the formulation of workplace policies governing employees’ practices. The policy would require workers to use protective equipment availed by the organization, reports hazards issues immediately they detect them, and participate in routine risk assessments. Sometimes, employees may expose themselves to hazards due to ignorance on following the right procedures. As such, setting policies will ensure everyone is on check with the regulations or failure to do so they are subjected to disciplinary action for policy violations.
Significance of Occupational Health
Concerning heavy metal poisoning at workplaces, the significance of occupational health measures is to avoid injuries or illnesses caused by prolonged exposure to toxicity. Occupational health also helps prevent or reduce deaths caused by diseases that result from the hazards of heavy metals. Liver, lung, or kidney problems are life-threatening conditions that individuals may acquire from their workplaces in the right measures are not in place to protect their health. Currently, significant changes are occurring at workplaces like long working hours, decreased job security, pressures from work, and compacted working days. Such factors add stress and put individual close to potential risks, as the reality of modern workplaces. Thus, occupational health, in this case, is a great rescue.
In conclusion, this paper has addressed workplace hazards or injuries associated with heavy metals poisoning. Some of the identified risks include death, lung or skin disease, and kidney problem. Exposure to such hazards come from environmental factors like the release of metallic elements in the air during work operations. To prevent these hazards, methods like risk assessments, use of PPEs, and policy enforcement. My thought concerning heavy metal poisoning is that metallic elements are unavoidable, not only a place of work but also at home, especially through soils and water. The most active intervention is to test routinely to maintain levels that do not pose harm.
References
Ara, A., & Usmani, J. A. (2015). Lead toxicity: a review. Interdisciplinary toxicology, 8(2), 55-64.
Collado, L. (2015). Exposure Monitoring in Developing Countries.
Hasan, S., Saeed, S., & Choudhary, P. (2015). Biomedical waste management-a public health hazard: an overview of literature. Malaya Journal of Biosciences (MJB), 2(2), 143-148.