Industrial Hygiene Consultation Services

What is Industrial Hygiene?

Industrial hygiene is the science of identifying, evaluating, and controlling hazards in the workplace. As the name implies, industrial hygiene has historically addressed hazards in industrial settings, such as iron foundries, but more recently has expanded to include all types of work settings including health-care, emergency response, and office buildings.

Examples of hazards evaluated by industrial hygienists include:

  • Chemical - solvents, metal fumes
  • Biological - infectious agents
  • Physical - noise, repetitive motion
  • Radiological - ionizing radiation
  • General Safety - equipment accidents

Who We Are

The New York State Department of Health, Bureau of Occupational Health and Injury Prevention is committed to the prevention of workplace injuries, illnesses, and fatalities. The Bureau conducts a number of public health programs to identify occupational disease and provide outreach and prevention services.

The Industrial Hygiene Section of the Bureau of Occupational Health and Injury Prevention is staffed with experts who have a wide range of experience in helping employers, workers, clinicians, trade organizations, labor unions, local health agencies, and other organizations in the prevention of workplace hazards.

What We Do

Industrial hygiene staff provide technical assistance and expertise to individual companies for controlling workplace hazards. There is no fee for our services.

Staff also conduct industry-wide research studies to identify and develop new and more cost-effective hazard control strategies. Our recommendations and other useful information are shared with worksites and other stakeholders through informational mailings, presentations at meetings and seminars, publications in trade and scientific journals, and through other outreach activities.

Industrial hygiene staff follow-up on possible health hazards identified by a number of State Health Department programs including the Heavy Metals Registry, Pesticide Poisoning Registry, and Occupational Lung Disease Registry.

As part of the New York State Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluations program, staff investigate occupational fatalities, develop guidance documents and training materials, and perform outreach activities. Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation investigation reports are available on our webpage.

Industrial hygiene staff are a nationally-recognized resource for environmental tuberculosis control measures and provide technical assistance to a variety of facilities and agencies on evaluating and implementing tuberculosis environmental controls.

We also serve as a technical resource on worker protection for emergency preparedness and response activities to governmental agencies, first responders, health-care facilities and other organizations.

In addition to these specific programs, we provide technical consultation by phone or through on-site visits for issues involving lead at shooting ranges, confined space entry, agricultural hazards, construction hazards (including lead and silica in road construction), personal and respiratory protective equipment, bloodborne pathogens, hazard communication programs, and other worker protection programs.

How To Contact Us.

Call 518-402-7900 or 1-800-458-1158.

To find an occupational health clinic in your area please go to our List of Occupational Health Clinics.

External Links to Industrial Hygiene Sites