The air environment is the most important part of the working environment surrounding the worker. Occupational Safety and Health

OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH
Free library / Occupational Safety and Health

The air environment is the most important part of the working environment surrounding the worker. Occupational Safety and Health

Occupational Safety and Health

Occupational Safety and Health / Legislative basis for labor protection

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Air environment of all the elements that make up the environment and human activity, is the most important. Of all the environments surrounding a person, it alone serves as a truly "environment", because it directly surrounds the human body (with the exception of cases of being under water that is unnatural for a person). But not only this air environment stands out from other environments. The human body needs air oxygen constantly and throughout its life, which is simply impossible without breathing.

Natural air is a complex dynamic system formed by various gases (and vapors) and suspended solid and liquid particles - aerosols (dust, smoke, fog, viruses, bacteria, spores, pollen).

"Clean air", i.e. a mixture of basic gases, devoid of aerosol and gaseous "pollutions", is a scientific abstraction, an idealization not found in nature, but necessary for understanding all other real states of the air environment.

Air pollution refers to the direct or indirect introduction of any substance into it in such an amount that changes the quality and composition of clean atmospheric air, causing harm to people, wildlife and inanimate nature.

Gaseous air pollution in the working environment is associated with the evaporation of volatile liquids, gas leaks from tanks, the formation of gases during combustion, material processing, etc.

Water vapor is the most important gaseous substance that determines air quality. The hotter the air is, the more water vapor it can hold. The ratio of water vapor contained to the maximum amount that air can contain at a given temperature is called relative humidity. It characterizes the "filling" of air with water vapor and thus characterizes the ability of water to evaporate. Cooling moist air causes vapor condensation - fog and droplets (condensate) form on all cold surfaces.

The most important characteristic of the air environment is barometric pressure, because the difference between barometric pressure and air pressure in the alveoli of the lungs determines the amount of gas exchange. Barometric pressure is considered and called normal at sea level (one atmosphere) and decreases exponentially with altitude.

In addition to the gas composition and barometric pressure, the most important characteristic of the air environment is air temperature. In combination with the mobility (speed) of air movement relative to the human body, the air temperature determines the nature of heat transfer - heating or cooling the human body. Note that, strictly speaking, the heating or cooling of a body is also determined by the ratio of the temperature of the surface of the body and the temperature of the surrounding bodies, which constitute radiant heating. Body cooling also depends on perspiration, which in turn depends on the relative humidity of the air.

Temperature, air mobility and relative humidity, as well as radiant heat transfer determine the thermal comfort/discomfort of a person in the air.

The state of the air environment, characterized by temperature, air mobility and relative humidity, a certain radiant heat transfer and barometric pressure is called microclimate (sometimes industrial microclimate).

Maintaining the microclimate of the workplace within the limits of hygienic standards is the most important task of labor protection.

We emphasize that the process of forming the quality of the indoor air is fundamentally different from the same process in the open atmosphere in the absence of ultraviolet radiation, partial or complete shielding from geomagnetic fields (especially in buildings made of reinforced concrete structures), variability in the electrical properties of air, the practical absence of higher plants, the relative the smallness of the ratio of the volume of the air environment and the surface area through which the pollution process occurs.

All this significantly affects the quality of the air environment in the premises, leading to the fact that, as a rule, the air in the premises, especially industrial ones, turns out to be tens or even hundreds of times worse than "outside". In addition, the presence of the above factors makes it difficult to maintain the characteristics of the air environment in acceptable values for the human body, requires the use of special cleaning devices and / or personal protective equipment.

Authors: Fainburg G.Z., Ovsyankin A.D., Potemkin V.I.

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