OHS (Occupational Health and Safety) Measurements
Employee safety should be a top priority for employer organizations. Substances found, used or otherwise processed in the workplace and the conditions of the working environment should not pose a hazard to workers. Employees should be protected from their harmful effects. For a safe working environment, physical, chemical and biological factors for both the working environment and personal exposures in the working environment must be measured, tested, analyzed and evaluated. Only laboratories that have a certificate of competence can do this.Employer organizations have occupational hygiene measurements, tests and analyzes performed according to the results of risk assessment studies. If there is a difference in personal exposure values due to the characteristics of the workplace environment or the work performed during the activity, occupational hygiene measurements, tests and analyzes should be performed again, if deemed necessary by the workplace physician or occupational safety experts in the workplace. All these issues are included in the Occupational Hygiene Measurement, Test and Analysis Laboratories Competence Regulation issued by the Ministry of Labor and Social Security in 2013. This regulation has been prepared with the aim of regulating the rules for authorizing private or state laboratories to carry out occupational hygiene measurements, tests and analyzes regarding personal exposures in the working environment or all kinds of physical, chemical and biological factors in the working environment in accordance with the occupational health and safety legal regulations. .
This regulation, which was prepared in accordance with the Occupational Health and Safety Law enacted in 2012, covers the organizations that will carry out occupational hygiene measurement, testing and analysis in the workplaces within the scope of this law. Laboratories that will carry out these studies are obliged to establish, implement and improve a quality management system in accordance with the accreditation standard in the subjects to which they will be authorized. Laboratories operating in this field mainly carry out the measurements, tests and analyzes listed below:
• Dust measurement
• Personal noise exposure measurement (lex, 8 hours)
• Working environment noise measurement
• Hand-arm vibration personal exposure measurement
• Whole body vibration personal exposure measurement
• Thermal comfort measurement
• Illumination measurement
• Chemical exposure and ambient gas measurements
