Page 30 - Petrosphere - Loss Control Management (LCM) Training Manual V 1.0

29 Module 3: Environmental Health in Industry Loss Control Management (LCM)

1. Air Pollutants or Contamination

Air contaminants are substance than can be solid
particles, liquid droplets, or gases in the air which have harmful
chemical properties that affect a person’s health. A pollutant can
be of natural origin or man-made. There are six main types of
contaminants that affects the workers:

a. Dusts
• These are solid airborne particles; often
created by operations such as grinding,
crushing, and sanding; the two major
industrial disease-producing dusts are free silica and asbestos.

b. Fumes
• These are solid particles which usually form an oxide, in reaction with the air (e.g.
zinc oxide, lead oxide, magnesium oxide, or iron oxide); often created by
processes such as smelting, arc welding, or gas cutting; one of the major metal

fume hazards is lead poisoning.

c. Smoke
• Smoke is produced by the incomplete burning of organic materials; made visible
by the minute particles or carbon suspended in them.

d. Mists
• These are finely dispersed liquids suspended in the air; often created by

operations such as spraying, foaming, pickling, and electroplating; mists hazards
occur most often with the use of acids.

e. Gases
• These are formless fluids often produced by chemical processes, combustion,
welding and so on; the main offender is the colorless and odorless carbon
monoxide.

f. Vapors

• The gaseous form of material normally in a solid (such as asphalt) or liquid state
(such as gasoline) at normal room temperature and pressure. The most

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