We will introduce examples of working environment measurement and assessment of the unreported workplace routes of exposure to hazardous substances or how epidemiological investigations have been conducted to identify occupational diseases for new hazardous substances. The International Cancer Research Institute (IARC) reported that Cobalt metal with tungsten carbide has limited evidence in relation to lung cancer (2006). In Presentation 1, we present the results of exposure assessment for substances associated with lung cancer that are being exposed in a cemented carbide manufacturing process.

The operators of overhead traveling crane in steel mill factory perform work to transmit large electric furnace to an appropriate working process. Workers can be exposed to various dangerous substances, which are caused by high temperatures under various conditions during work, rising to the top of the plant. Therefore, the purpose of In Presentation 2, is to investigate the harmful factors exposed to crane operators.

In Presentation 3, pneumoconiosis occurs during the frying pan manufacturer process in Korea. Exposure was assessed for dust, metals, crystalline silica, and PTFE. The PTFE of the coating process was measured and analyzed by scanning electron microscopy. It is believed that pneumoconiosis was caused by PTFE exposure.

Crystalline silica is a well-known lung cancer carcinogen and causes silicosis, a kind of pneumoconiosis, and is exposed in various sites including coal mines, stone processing such as granite, and construction sites.

For Presentation 4, we will show what kinds of artificial marble are used as luxury materials in kitchens and toilets in new apartments. In addition, the level of crystalline free silicate exposure in processing them will be presented, and the degree of crystalline free silica exposure level compared to existing natural marble processing will be presented.

Presentation 5 presents the results of identifying, measuring, and analyzing harmful substances through various advanced equipment such as PTR-Tof MS and traditional exposure assessment techniques in the cooking environment for identifying the causes of lung cancer of non-smoking female worker.

This session will discuss recent advances in occupational hygiene education and training on three different global fronts. One speaker will discuss the ongoing development of international consensus standards on curriculum for formal academic college and university programs. A second speaker will provide an overview of international non-profit organizations that have collaborated in developing and delivering occupational hygiene education in areas where there is limited availability of professional training. A third presenter will provide information on the University of Illinois Chicago online program for occupational hygiene training. Three speakers talking from three different vantage points will coincide on this one very essential topic of global occupational hygiene training and education.

Occupational hygiene for persons with disabilities includes vocational rehabilitation and workers compensation under law, but in-house compliance programs preventing discrimination based on disability must go beyond addressing workplace injuries in order to obey the law. According to the United Nations convention on preventing discrimination against persons with disabilities (2006), and the laws of over 100 nations, people deserve reasonable accommodations to help them work regardless of their disability. Sound occupational health policy and industrial hygiene practice must therefore embrace a whole new realm of concerns to meet the special needs of people with disabilities who might have been shut out of these economic and social opportunities a century before, regardless of the type or cause of the disability. This will now include those individuals affected by COVID-19 and subsequent associated disabilities, including workers whose disabilities were not caused by occupational transmission. This session will describe various types of disabilities and potential workplace solutions. It will explore the best practices that provide meaningful help to workers with disabilities, without regard to the cause of disability. Success stories of good industrial hygiene practice will be used to showcase how positive approaches can make big differences in people's lives by improving diversity, fairness, and workplace health and safety without sacrificing productivity.

The objectives of this symposium is to present growing trends, health risks and disease among informal workers in the recycling industry. The growing demand for increased recycling of plastics, batteries, electronics, paper and other consumer commodities has spawn industries in numerous global cities. Even food waste is collected and composted in urban areas which can present significant unintended consequences. Recently country shifts in the global recycling processing (namely China's discontinuation of importing plastics for high income countries) further stressing neighboring countries and introducing new occupational hazards. While the industry has grown, the worker health infrastructure, as well as regulations, lags behind. The occupational surveillance systems presently in place do not adequately address this workforce, which in low and middle income countries, can substantially outnumber the formal workforce.

This symposium will start by identifying the global challenges followed by country specific examples of recycling risks. Lastly, solutions that address occupational injuries and disease within the recycling sector will be presented.

To discuss how New Zealand has identified and developed solutions to address current workforce capability and capaicity issues in occupational hygiene.





This symposia will look at how gaps in the occupational hygiene workforce capability and capacity were identified nationally, and benchmarked against international models from similar sized countries.



Arising from this, a clear indication was identified for a need to improve the training opportunities which resulted in the New Zealand Occupational Hygiene Society (NZOHS) setting up a project with the Health and Safety Association of New Zealand (HASANZ) to deliver training utilising the International Certificate in Occupational Hygiene (ICertOH) system with Government financial support.

As part of the project a small working group was set up involving the NZOHS, HASANZ, Otago (NZ), Massey(NZ) and Edith Cowan (Australia) Universities to address tertiary education to Masters level. This has resulted in the triple badging of a degree that can be run in NZ without students leaving the country to train.





This symposium will be of interest to those looking at benchmarking the profession to identify gaps in the market. It will also be of interest to those who are looking for education solutions without having to send students overseas.

Work-related exposures are preventable. Traditionally, many work-related diseases have taken long time to be identified, prevented and then recognized as compensable. Asbestos for example is a case in point. Effective prevention is a concern for policy makers globally as it has direct impact on productivity, compensation costs and work-related sickness absence. Despite identification of many occupational causes of diseases identifying work-related diseases and causal factors remains a challenge.

Objective of the symposium is to provide better understanding of systems and methods for identification of known, new and emerging work-related diseases.

Importantly, some known work-related disease might well be new or emerging because of new work-process or new products that are made with old known hazardous substances. Then you also have diseases that are attributed to completely new exposures at work that not have been documented before.

In this symposium, we will be providing examples from different systems for identifying work-related diseases, both known, new and emerging. The expected outcome of the symposium would be to enhance the collective understanding of researchers, policy makers and practitioners on how we together could identify known, new and emerging work-related disease and prevent them in an efficient and timely manner.

The International Cooperation is a key component to improve Occupational Hygiene worldwide. During this symposium we will discuss tremendous partnership happening in Asia, with the Asian Network in Occupational Hygiene (ANOH), in Europe with the European Network in OH, in South America with the PanAm association, in Africa with OSHAfrica and in many other parts of the world. This local collaboration is part of the orientation IOHA is taking to increase knowledge and qualification in OH. The profession of Occupational Hygienist is still to be more understood and the cooperation between countries is essential. We will discuss about regulations differences in various countries which influences the profession of OH and the promotion of occupational health. We will also discuss IOHA partnership with major international organizations like ILO, WHO, ISSA, IEA, IRPS and other collaborators such as Workplace Health Without Borders.

Purpose

To show the current status and future issues of development and implementation of exposure assessment tools.

Importance

Exposure assessment tools are widely used in the EU and beyond in regulatory risk assessments for industrial chemicals and process that generate hazardous substances in workplaces. The global occupational hygiene community will never be able to collect sufficient numbers of exposure measurements to obtain exposure estimates for all workplaces. Exposure models which err on the side of caution can help in a tiered chemical management approach to prove which work scenarios are safe and unsafe. Potentially unsafe work scenarios should then be studied to clarify the true risk by e.g., release and personal exposure measurements and / or biological monitoring. To follow this principle successfully, the models used need to be externally validated through a cyclic of continuous model improvement. The integration of sensor data will create new possibilities. Furthermore the tools need to be implemented at company level in a sustainable way.

Expected outcomes

- participants will have the latest overview of currently available exposure and risk assessment tools used in the EU and beyond; both on state of the art and future developments

- participants will understand how these tools can be used in a tiered business wise chemical management approach

Understanding and overcoming the challenges in completing chemical exposure assessment, and controls implementation backed up with exposure monitoring data. This important for Industrial Hygiene professionals and practitioners to objectively use the data collected from exposure monitoring in making judgement about the risk and compliance level in making recommendation for improvement in workers' health protection. Lack of guidance and knowledge in data analysis is another challenge in interpreting the data obtained to enable practical recommendations to employers.

As practitioners there were many challenges in getting the right and useful data during field work as well. The objective of the symposium is to share the challenges faced by IH in getting the right data (observation and measurement results) and making practical recommendations based on the data obtained. Sharing to start from making strategic planning in data collection , continued with executing the planned strategy via field work (actual sampling work) and data analysis and interpretation. Speakers will share issues, challenges and bring to discussion ways to overcome those challenges for practitioners. Final sharing will be panel discussion/forum on making practical recommendations and improvement based on the data obtained.

It is hopeful that at the end of this session, participants reached understanding, ideas and way forward on overcoming the challenges from all sharing and discussion.

Occupational exposure limit values for metals and metalloids are decreasing, especially for metals or metalloids identified as carcinogens or sensitizers. Increasingly, size-specific sampling fractions (e.g. inhalable and/or respirable) are prescribed by regulation. These very low OELVs bring challenges to the measurement methods. All portions of these methods, including sampling, sample dissolution and the analytical methods themselves must be optimized dramatically in order to attain lower method detection limits while maintaining high data quality. For sampling, this is requiring new high flow samplers for inhalable and respirable fractions. For laboratory analysis, techniques must consider sensitivity, reagent purity and solubility issues for metal compounds. Some of the current standardized methods may no longer be adequate for ever-lower elemental OELVs.

The learning outcomes of this symposium are:

1. Understand the growing challenges in trace-level sampling and analysis for metals and metalloids

2. Identify methodologies to meet particle size-specific sampling requirements (e.g. inhalable, respirable)

3. Describe important considerations for sample preparation and laboratory analysis for metals and metalloids at trace levels

Practical application can be described as follows:

1. Help IH/OH professionals in selecting the right sampling equipment for trace-level metals and metalloids

2. Ensure IH/OH professionals understand the importance of proper laboratory analysis in obtaining the results they need for decision making

This session will discuss Control Banding applications providing immediate benefits globally in achieving risk communication leading directly to the prevention of work-related risks. One speaker will discuss ongoing developments for the quantitative validation of Control Banding (CB) methods and how qualitative risk management can be successfully implemented through national programs and large industries as a result of its simplified communication of risk. A second speaker will provide an overview of GHS compliant SDSs can be utilized to protect workers from chemical health hazards, providing a simplified process that can be implemented in organizations without an occupational hygienist. A third presenter will provide information on Workplace Health Without Borders and how training and program implementation that provide easy to understand risk communication through applications that include CB can benefit the world of workers in the countries where prevention of work-related risks is most necessary. These three speakers presenting common applications of the benefits of qualitative risk assessment and management from many different perspectives will provide the audience a clear indication that CB as risk communication can be readily applied by any audience member, wherever in the world they may work, the size of industry they represent, or occupational hygiene specialty.