Beyond Hard Hats: Integrating Industrial Hygiene into Lone Worker Safety

Integrating industrial hygiene principles helps protect lone workers by identifying, evaluating, and controlling unique safety risks.

• By Stasia DeMarco
• Feb 28, 2025

The roots of industrial hygiene can be traced back thousands of years. In ancient Rome, scholar Pliny the Elder advised miners to wear face masks, or PPE, made from animal bladders, to protect them from inhaling dangerous dust while at work. Industrial hygiene has come a long way since, becoming a highly specialized, high-tech field.

However, in many ways it has not changed at all; the same primary objective exists of protecting workers' health. Or to explain more what it entails for workplace safety, OSHA says industrial hygiene is defined as the “science and art devoted to the anticipation, recognition, evaluation, and control of those environmental factors or stresses arising in or from the workplace, which may cause sickness, impaired health and well-being, or significant discomfort among workers or among the citizens of the community.”

While originally developed to protect people working in industrial environments, many industrial hygiene fundamentals can be applied to workplace safety in all industries and environments, particularly for those working alone and in remote locations. Lone workers face hazards that employees in teams do not experience, including major challenges to accessing help in emergencies – of maintaining communication to request that help.

The Four Core Principles of Industrial Hygiene

As mentioned in OSHA’s definition, industrial hygiene is based around four core principles that can help people working alone address challenges to emergency communications and other lone worker occupational hazards. These four principles include anticipation, recognition, evaluation, and control, which provide measures and protocols that protect the lone worker through proactivity, prevention, and customized controls.

1. Anticipation. The most effective approach to success managing occupational safety hazards is through anticipation and prevention. This requires measures that can evaluate the work environments of all safety hazards, allowing lone workers and employers to assess the dangers that they are facing.

2. Recognition. Recognizing and understanding the potential hazards of a work environment is especially important when preventing work hazards before somebody is hurt. Lone workers can be trained to recognize hazards in the work environments such as fall dangers by immediately identifying and reporting spills or leaks.

3. Evaluation. Once the potential occupational hazards have been identified, their risk levels must be evaluated. This can be accomplished through assessments and monitoring of the lone workers and their environments. The lone worker’s exposure levels to a specific safety hazard must be measured so that the employer can make an educated decision if more steps are needed to protect them.

4. Control. When a hazard is determined to be high-risk to lone workers, safety measures and controls can be implemented to eliminate their exposure or the hazard itself. Each safety control is specific to that occupational hazard as well as the lone worker’s environment and circumstances. Engineering controls like guardrails and automated systems and administrative controls like safety training and protocols are examples, as well as PPE and protective gear.

Common Hazards in Lone Worker Environments

Occupational hazards, particularly for lone workers who are more vulnerable, can be categorized into sections that include chemical (pesticides, benzine, asbestos) physical (extreme temperatures and noise, ergonomic risks), biological (viruses, harmful bacteria, mold) ergonomic (musculoskeletal injuries, sprains), and psychosocial (isolation, loneliness and stress, bullying and harassment).

In different industries, lone workers experience hazards with unique risks and dangers – this can also vary from jobsite to jobsite. There are industry-specific lone worker hazards that have been identified including:

• Water workers are exposed to waterborne pathogens and biological hazards, confined space risks, and high-risk chemical handling.
• Utility workers must work around electrical and fire hazards, potential gas leaks, and perform tasks from dangerous heights.
• Manufacturing workers are at risk of dangerous levels of noise exposure, toxic chemical and gas inhalation, and repetitive motion injuries and musculoskeletal injuries (MSIs).
• Home healthcare workers must face the possibility of violence and harassment, exposure to infectious diseases, and ergonomic injuries and sprains.

Applying Industrial Hygiene to Lone Worker Safety

These industry-specific hazards are examples of occupational challenges that are amplified when the person is working alone. Hazards and accident scenarios that would appear straightforward with a coworker present, are much more complex when the lone worker does not have another person present to help. Applying and prioritizing industrial hygiene’s four principles will help managers and lone workers address this increased risk as well as effectively manage and mitigate any existing safety hazards.

Anticipation and Recognition of Hazards

For lone and remote workers, preparation is key. To be fully prepared, all existing occupational hazards must be identified and documented. This can be accomplished through thorough job hazard analyses and hazard assessments of the work environments, including operations and processes, tasks, equipment at tools, as well as the lone workers themselves such as health issues. For example, chlorine gas exposure would be measured for water treatment workers or for home healthcare workers, accessibility to emergency communication. Additionally, look at past work safety incidents and history and relevant safety data to better anticipate hazards.

Evaluation of Risks

The risk levels of all safety hazards are increased when an employee is working alone. It is important to measure the lone workers’ risk for the hazards they need to deal with while performing their jobs. This requires ongoing, regular hazard assessments of the workplace, noting any changes in safety or circumstances as well as real-time monitoring technology to watch risk factors such as changes in air quality, temperature, radiation levels, and dangerous levels of noise. For example, a homecare nurse could carry a panic button device or have location monitoring activated to ensure help can be sent quickly if they need it immediately in a client’s home. Also, oil and gas workers can wear gas-detection devices to prevent toxic inhalation and unconsciousness.

Control Measures for Lone Worker Safety

The safety hazards that are identified and measured for risk require control measures and steps to manage and eliminate the danger they present to lone workers. First consider engineering controls that make physical changes to the workplace and any tools or equipment. For example, in water treatment, automated chemical dosing systems can be installed to reduce risky manual handling. Next, look at administrative controls that make adjustments to work practices, reducing exposure to lone worker hazards – these include developing lone worker policies and specific safety training and education. Additionally, controls can include PPE, protective clothing, and gear such as arc-rated clothing for utility workers and high-quality face masks for home healthcare workers.

Strengthening Organizational Safety via Lone Worker Protection

Just because lone workers are physically or geographically apart from the company, it does not mean their safety is also isolated. Lone worker safety impacts the entire organization and its people. A strong lone worker safety program is indicative of a strong safety culture that recognizes the different safety needs for people working alone or in remote areas – it can also help maintain compliance with regulations and industry standards. By providing lone workers with technologies and tools to keep them safe like emergency communication channels and satellite tracking devices, not only are there occupational safety improvements, but according to the National Safety Council, there are cost-saving benefits as well

Power in the Four Principles

While there are only four core principles for industrial hygiene and safety, by focusing on these key areas and principles for lone workers, their safety will benefit as well as the organization. Anticipation, recognition, evaluation, and control will help any workplace address its safety hazards and issues. However, these principles are particularly beneficial for lone workers' safety in their simplicity, but more importantly, in the initiative-taking attitude towards safety and preventing accidents before they occur. Preparation is a powerful tool for lone worker safety, no matter which industry it may be.