Z94.13 - Occupational Health & Safety
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EAR PROTECTORS. Plugs, muffs, or helmets designed to keep excessive noise from the ear to preserve hearing acuity.
EARLY CAUSE. An act on the part of some person or organization or a condition that causes or permits approximate or immediate cause to exist (also referred to as distal cause).
ECOLOGICAL CORRELATION. A correlation in which the units studied are populations rather than individuals. Correlations found in this manner may not hold true for the individual members of these populations.
ECZEMA. A skin disease or disorder. A nonspecific term for any type of dermatitis.
EDEMA. Excessive accumulation of body fluid in the tissue space of the body, producing a swelling of body tissues.
EFFICIENT CAUSE. The cause which originates and sets in motion a chain of causation through other causes to the result. The cause of injury is attached to legal liability. This term is not as popular in use as proximate cause.
ELECTRICAL SAFETY. Engineering measures, including devices, used to prevent worker exposure to hazards caused by electricity.
ELECTROSTATIC PRECIPITATOR. An air cleaning device that involves the following steps: electrical charging of suspended particulate matter; collection of charged particles on a grounded surface; and removal of particulates from the collecting surface by mechanical vibration or flushing with liquid.
EMERGENCY ALARM. A warning device, usually visual or auditory, which indicates the existence of an emergency situation requiring immediate action.
EMERGENCY PROCEDURE. A plan for action in case of emergency.
EMERGENCY SHUT-OFF. A switch placed in a convenient position for cutting off the supply of electricity to a piece of equipment or to a building, in case of emergency.
EMERGENCY STOP. A switch and/or a mechanical device installed in an elevator, or other similar material-handling equipment, by means of which the power to the operating motor can be cut off in case of an emergency.
EMISSION CONTROL. Engineering measures, including devices, used to prevent worker exposure to contaminants that are released within the workplace. The term also refers to measures used on internal combustion engines, exhaust stacks, and other emission sources that are used to protect the general public.
EMPHYSEMA. An enlargement of the air spaces distal to the terminal nonrespiratory bronchioles, with destruction of alveolar walls.
EMPLOYEE-HOURS. The total number of hours worked by all employees of an industrial organization or an industry. An employee-hour is the equivalent of one person working for one hour.
EMPLOYER'S LIABILITY. Legal liability imposed on an employer making the employer responsible for paying damages to an employee injured by the employer's negligence. Generally replaced by Worker's Compensation, which pays the employee whether the employer has been negligent or not.
ENCLOSED SPACE. (See CONFINED SPACE.)
ENDEMIC. Usual level of disease occurrence in a population.
ENGINEERING CONTROLS. Basic methods used to prevent worker exposure to harmful chemical, physical, or biological agents by means of material substitution, equipment isolation, and material removal. Examples include: process design and modification, equipment design and enclosure, barrier guards, and ventilation.
EPICONDYLES (OF HUMERUS). The bony prominences at the medial and lateral side of the elbow. The extensor muscles of the wrist and digits are attached to the lateral epicondyle and the flexors to the medial epicondyle.
EPICONDYLITIS (TENNIS ELBOW). An irritation at the common muscle attachment at the epicondyles, almost always at the lateral epicondyle. The cause may be a contusion of the epicondyle area or repetitive motion involving a rotary movement at the elbow. This condition is common in tennis players who serve too vigorously for the first time in spring. Symptoms are tenderness over the external epicondyle, pain in the lateral aspects of the elbow on grasping objects.
EPIDEMIC. Unusually high level of disease or injury occurrence in a population in light of past experience.
EPIDEMIOLOGY. The study of the factors determining and influencing the frequency and distribution of disease, injury, and other health-related events and their causes in a defined human population for the purpose of establishing programs to prevent and control their development and spread.
EQUIVALENT FORM. Any of two or more forms of a test that are closely parallel with respect to the nature of the content and the difficulty of the items included and that will yield very similar average scores and measures of variability for a given group.
ERGONOMICS/HUMAN FACTORS. Field of investigation dealing with interactions between workers and the total working environment. Human factors engineering is the application of information about human characteristics to the design of systems and environments so that people can work safely.
ETIOLOGY. The study of causes of disease or injury, both direct and predisposing, and of their mode of operation.
EXHAUST (GENERAL). Diluting the general room atmosphere with outdoor air fast enough to keep the concentration of toxic vapor in the room air within safe limits. Also known as general ventilation, or dilution ventilation.
EXHAUST (LOCAL). A local exhaust system is used to collect air contaminants at the source, as contrasted with general ventilation which allows the contaminant to spread throughout the workroom, later to be diluted by exhausting quantities of air from the room. Local exhaust may be achieved using an enclosure, a receiving hood, or an exterior hood.
EXHAUST VENTILATION. The removal of air or other gas from any work space, usually by mechanical means.
EXPERIENCE. Data describing past events, e.g., accident experience refers to the frequency number or severity of accidents that have occurred within a specified time period.
EXPERIENCE RATING (MERIT RATING). Process of basing tax rates or insurance premiums on the employer's own record, as in worker's compensation, unemployment insurance, and commercially insured health and insurance programs, so that the employer may benefit from a good record.
EXPERT EVIDENCE. Testimony given in relation to some scientific, technical, or professional matter by an expert witness. An expert can reason out, infer, or conclude from hypothetically stated facts, and can offer opinions involving the subject matter under consideration. It is up to the jury to give whatever credence it wants to the testimony.
EXPERT TESTIMONY. The opinion of a witness skilled in a particular art, trade, or profession or possessed of special knowledge derived from education or experience not within the range of common experience, education, or knowledge.
EXPERT WITNESS. A person possessing particular knowledge, wisdom, skill or information acquired by study, investigation, observation, practice, or experience, regarding the subject matter under consideration and not likely to be possessed by ordinary or inexperienced persons. It is up to the judge to determine if the person is qualified as an expert and if the testimony is pertinent to, or would shed light- on the case.
EXPLOSIMETER. An instrument used to determine whether an atmosphere has sufficient gas and oxygen in mixture to be explosive.
EXPLOSION. A rapid increase of pressure in a confined space followed by its sudden release due to rupture of the container (vessel, structure, etc.). The increase in pressure is generally caused by an exothermic chemical reaction or over- pressurization of a system.
EXPLOSION VENTING. A means provided for the release of high pressures caused by explosions.
EXPLOSION-PROOF. An electrical apparatus so designed that an explosion of flammable gas inside the enclosure will not ignite flammable gas outside. (See FLAMEPROOF.)
EXPLOSIVE DECOMPRESSION. A sudden rapid decrease in barometric pressure. This may occur from loss of integrity of a pressurized aircraft cabin or recompression chamber or in a diver who blows up,- surfacing rapidly from depth due to a loss of buoyancy control. It may result in decompression sickness or pulmonary hyperinflation and air embolism.
EXPLOSIVE LIMITS. The minimum (lower) and maximum (upper) concentration of vapor or gas in air or oxygen below or above which explosion or propagation of flame does not occur in the presence of a source of ignition. The explosive or flammable limits are usually expressed in terms of percentage by volume of vapor or gas in air. The difference between the lower and upper flammable (explosive) limits is the "range", expressed in terms of percentage by volume of vapor or gas in air. (See LOWER EXPLOSIVE LIMIT, UPPER EXPLOSIVE LIMIT.)
EXPLOSIVE MIXTURE. A mixture of flammable vapor or gas and air within the lower and upper limits of the explosive range.
EXPLOSIVES. Any chemical compound or mechanical mixture that is used or intended for the purpose of producing an explosion. Contains any oxidizing and combustive units or other ingredients in such proportions, quantities, or packing that an ignition by fire, by friction, by concussion, by percussion, or by detonation of any part of the compound or mixture may cause such a sudden generation of highly heated gases that the resultant gaseous pressures are capable of producing destructive effects on contiguous objects or of destroying life or limb.
EXPOSURE. The quantity of time involved, the level (quantity), and the nature (quality) of involvement with certain types of environments possessing various degrees or types of hazards. The amount of time a worker has been exposed to certain types of job hazards.
EXPOSURE (CASUALTY). Proximity to a condition which may produce injury, death, or damage from dusts, chemicals, high pressure, explosives, etc.
EXPOSURE HOURS (EMPLOYEE-HOURS). Total number of employee- hours worked by all employees including those in operating, production, maintenance, transportation, clerical, administrative, sales, and other activities (See ANSI Z-16).
EXTINGUISHER. (See FIRE EXTINGUISHERS.)
EXTINGUISHING AGENT. Material or substance which performs a fire extinguishing function.
EYE PROTECTION. A device which safeguards the eye in an eye-hazard environment. The devices include safety glasses, chemical splash goggles, face shields, etc.
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