Early Career Occupational Hygienist Essay Award 2024 – Sean Batter

The occupational hygiene profession is a varied role covering a vast range of topics concerning worker health protection. The hygienist’s focus ranges from assessing noise risks caused by machinery to human factors affecting the efficiency of control measures. Despite this wide range of topics in a hygienist’s remit, one important factor is often overlooked – mental health which impairment can be caused or exacerbated by physical stressors in the workplace.

This essay will explore what mental health is and why this topic requires even the hygienist’s focus. I will discuss how impaired mental health can affect those working in hazardous conditions, give real world examples drawn from my first-hand experiences, and unfold discussions with psychological health specialists to this topic.

Mental Health in the Workplace:

There are many different mental health issues that can affect a worker’s ability to complete tasks safely e.g. stress. The HSE defines stress as ‘the adverse reaction people have to excessive pressures or other types of demands placed upon them1’. This definition covers not only the stress experienced in the workplace but also in the worker’s private life. There are six main causes of stress in the workplace; demands (what is expected of a worker in the workplace), control (how much management and ‘micromanagement’ a worker experiences), support (how much the workers are supported by their employer, in both work and personal matters), relationships (how well do the employees get on with each other and the management team) , role (how much pressure is there job role under?), and change (are there any significant changes to the job or processes they carry out regularly?. Everyone is different and so what may cause an increase in stress in one person may have very little effect on someone else. Due to this personal variability, care must be taken to ensure that not all workers are assumed to have the same tolerance to factors which may cause stress. An article by Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) England shows the extent of mental health issues in the workplace, as well as the effect that these issues are having on the economy2. In 2022, increasing amounts of long-term sick leave was attributed to stress, depression, or anxiety, with workers feeling that work is getting more intense and demanding, and saying that they feel exhausted at the end of most workdays. This is also a concern for team managers. More managers say they are out of their depth when it comes to supporting their team with mental health needs and many managers cite organisational barriers (company policy, heavy workload, workplace culture, and lack of skill training) as blockers to supporting their staff’s mental health. These issues cost the economy £28 billion annually.

The cases of workplace related illnesses on the UK workforce are also following an upwards trend3. Approximately 1.8 million workers in the UK suffered from new or long standing work-related ill health in 2022/23. Of these, 672,000 were reported as new cases of workplace related ill health. These issues caused an annual cost of £20.7 billion for workplace injuries and new cases of work-related ill health in 2021/22.

With both mental health related and physical health related issues being prevalent in the workplace, the question must be asked – is there a correlation between the two? Both mental health issues and physical health issues have shown a similar trend. And although both have shown a rise in the post covid work environment, the relationship between the two is clear, an increase or decrease in one is mirrored by the other.

How Can Good Occupational Hygiene Help?

In a conversation with Laura Gliddon, a Psychological Safety Advisor working in a shipyard in the southwest of England, the levels of hormones in the brain can affect the mental health of workers. The most indicative hormone of this is cortisol, the stress hormone. This hormone is produced more when the body is under stress, as it helps to trigger the body’s fight, flight, freeze or fawn response. Excessive levels of cortisol in the body can cause a number of effects, from hostility and depression, to sleep deprivation and migraines.

Because the body and brain are linked, a change in the hormone levels can have a physical effect on the body. In the case of a workplace, this can take the form of poor workplace practices and behaviour. For example, when a worker is told to change the way that they work or is told to use available controls more effectively (such as positioning a LEV hood correctly), it can be met with hostility as the worker is put on the defensive about what they feel is a personal attack on their work. Another example could be that if a worker is carrying out a task which involves a dangerous substance/ process, they may feel anxiety over it and question the controls in place e.g. thinking these are too lax or require improvement. On the other hand, if they underestimate the risk they may ignore or not use the controls in place.

Occupational hygiene can be used to support an improvement in mental health in the workplace. The first way that an improvement can be made is by changing perceptions of what occupational hygiene is. For example, some workers, when asked if they can be monitored, will refuse, and may complain that it is only a tick box exercise for the company, and nothing will change. They may ask ‘’why bother?’’ as management will not do anything about the problems. They may also not understand the point of the exposure monitoring, feel that change is not necessary as the worker is not (yet) effected, and the worker might not understand the need for change since ‘‘it’s always been
done like this’’. A change in the perception and the ‘us against them’ mentality will help with resolving these common complaints. The current workforce has a number of preconceived notions about what health and safety, and by extent occupational hygiene, is. There have been many times when occupational hygienists have been avoided when on site, as the workers are under the impression that we are only there on the behalf of the employer to catch workers out and get them into trouble. This distrust for occupational hygiene can negatively affect the mental health of these workers, so by taking the time to talk to them and explain what we do we can help to foster a healthier understanding of occupational hygiene as a whole.

Another way that occupational hygiene can help with the improvement of mental health is by identifying unknown causes of workplace illness. This is most notable in instances of ‘sick building syndrome’ when an unknown and unseen factor can potentially have an impact on the health of a worker. This can play havoc with the mental health of the workers in the area.

Similarly, if there is a specific process or product that seems to cause aggravation in the workers, then there is a chance that anyone undertaking such a job will rush through it or try to modify the controls put in place. Occupational hygienists can help by identifying physical, chemical, and biological hazards in the workplace and provide data and numbers as to the exposure limits and the real values in the workplace. By identifying the hazards and giving real values to compare exposure to, the workers will no longer have to worry about an unknown level of exposure to hazards in the workplace. Again, there mental health in this instance will improve, by removing the fear of the unknown, this will put their mind at ease in terms of worst case scenarios and will allow them to plan and act accordingly and effectively apply controls to the area.

Finally, the brain still has at its core those primitive and animalistic parts from when humanity was in its infancy, with parts of the brain to keep you alert and on the lookout for predators that may be hunting you, or to drive you to seek shelter where you can rest comfortably. In this modern age, there is not much use for these parts. You are not likely to be hunted through your workspace by a pack of wolves, nor are you on the lookout for safe resting points on your commute. Despite this, the brain still needs these areas to function, so will associate modern day issues to trigger the same response. Because of this, there may be stress responses to hazards in the workplace that are caused by the brain reacting to things that it perceives as a threat, for example the smell of paint or adhesives being used in an area of the workspace may be enough to cause a response from the body, but when measured shows that the concentration in the air is below the WELs or STELs. By helping to improve the workplace via the recommendation and implementation of controls, or by educating the staff in the work area as to the hazards and how to raise concerns, the work environment can be made healthier, putting the workers at less risk. This will help to lower the levels of stress hormones generated by the brain, lowering the risk of mental health problems developing, or being aggravated by the work environment.

Personal Experience with Mental Health in the Workplace

Throughout my working life, I have worked in manufacturing and production environments, before starting my career in occupational hygiene. In all stages I have seen how mental health can be affected by the workplace, from the start of an issue, through to the responses and how occupational hygiene (both good and bad) has affected the outcome.

The first example of how occupational hygiene can affect mental health in the workplace is unfortunately an example of poor occupational hygiene. This occurred during my time working in a manufacturing environment. The area I was in dealt with the preparation of fiberglass components for final fitting to vehicles. A range of vibrating tools (such as orbital sanders, pneumatic hack saws and buffers) were used for the majority of the shift. Although we were informed about the dangers of hand arm vibration, no controls were put in place. we were not given any logbooks or points values to track out exposure. One worker ended up having severe pains in his hands whenever he was using the vibrating tools, so he started using them less to help reduce the pain he felt. Due to this, he was unable to keep to the same level of work as he had done previously. This affected his mental health as he felt that he was unable to do his work. The company tried to help; by saying he was only allowed to use the tools for a short time every day, but even this was not enough to stop the pain in his wrist. In the end he had to quit for his health, as it was far too painful to carry on. His mental health was affected throughout this situation, pushed on by feelings of helplessness and the stress of being unable to carry out a job that was done fine for numerous years, until a breaking point was reached, and he left for his own good. If the occupational hygiene in this instance was changed for the better, and the use of these vibrating tools controlled, then the worker may have been able to continue at his job for many more years.

The second example of occupational hygiene affecting mental health in the workplace is how good occupational health can provide a positive mental health benefit via the act of calming the concerns of a workforce when exposed to an unknown substance. This first came about after the installation of new CNC machines in a metal working workshop. The filters in the computer terminals were inspected after several weeks and a black dust was observed to have accumulated in them. This caused alarm to the workers in the surrounding areas, as it was unknown what the dust was comprised of, and how dangerous it is to breath in. Not only did this panic cause a mental health issue in the workers, who were worried about how their health would be affected in the area, but also in the managers, whose stress levels increased due to the potential delay in production for this essential work. Occupational hygiene was called in to take samples of the dust and identify what it is and its potential toxicity. Upon completion of this task, we identified the dust as a low toxicity dust, and informed the managers and workers on our findings. The management were reassured that the workers where not at risk from this dust, and the workers reported that they felt much more positive because there concerns where listened to and action was taken quickly.

Thirdly, routine surveying in a carpentry workshop on site showed that there was an issue with wood dust. The workers here were concerned about the dust that could be seen accumulating on various surfaces throughout the workshop and wanted to know how best to control it. The carcinogenic nature of wood dust was also known, so concerns were raised to management regarding how to control it. The mental health issue here was caused by the perceived exposure to a hazardous material, due to the accumulation of dust seen throughout the workplace. As the carcinogenic effects of wood dust was known, the workforce was worried by the exposure to it, causing feelings of stress. Significant overhauls and a thorough deep clean of the workshop were carried out following our monitoring and recommendations put forward with the intent of getting on top of the control of the dust, and cleaning up any accumulations of it before it becomes a problem. This worked. Our next visit after these changes where made the results for the samples collected was significantly lower than what had been recorded previously. Not only did this make the workers feel better, as the hazard they were exposed too was reduced by a measured amount, it also made them more receptive to further occupational hygiene work, as they could physically see the effect of the new controls in the workplace around them.

Conclusion

Throughout this essay we have looked at a number of different factors, from the effects that stress has on our mental health, the ways that work can affect this, as well as the way that occupational hygiene can help to improve mental health and some real-world examples of this. So, how can good occupational hygiene support positive mental health in the workplace?

The overall answer is that occupational hygiene can help in three main ways. The first is by reassuring workers that the area they are in is safe, either by identifying or measuring levels of hazards. The second is by recommending controls if changes need to be made, or if exposure to a hazard is high. By recommending these, the workplace will become a healthier place for workers to be in, meaning that they will feel better about being in work, and not have to worry as much about feeling unsafe or having the risk of workplace illnesses. The third is by simply listening to the concerns of workers. We as occupational hygienists are in a unique position when it comes to the workplace. We have the power to enter a workspace as an observer, and interact with all levels of it, from apprentice to manager. This means that we are able to listen to the concerns of workers and do something about it. With this level of autonomy, we can raise concerns where others may be too anxious or afraid to. The workers having someone listen to them and be on their side is enough to positively affect their mental state. These three points, and other smaller ways of helping, are what we can do to help support a positive shift in mental health and assist in promoting a healthier workplace for all.

1. HSE Stress Overview ( https://www.hse.gov.uk/stress/overview.htm )
2. MHFA Ten Workplace Mental Health Statistics for 2023 ( https://mhfaengland.org/mhfa-centre/blog/ten-workplace-mental-health-statistics-for-2023 )
3. HSE Summary Statistics Booklet 2023 ( https://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/overview.htm )