Safety Tidbit 3.14 - Christmas Tree Safety

Safety Tidbit 3.14 – Christmas Tree Safety

Reference: NFPA Public Education – Christmas Tree and Decoration Fires

Hello folks and Happy Thanksgiving! The holiday season is now upon us once more. As I came home from dropping my daughter off at her apartment yesterday after having Thanksgiving dinner, I saw a couple of Christmas tree lots getting set up. According to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), Christmas tree fires are not common, however, when they do occur, they are more likely to be serious. Therefore, we need to be mindful when we decorate our homes and offices so we make the holidays safer. Below are a few tips from the NFPA to help out:

Picking the tree

• Choose a tree with fresh, green needles that do not fall off when touched.

Placing the tree

• Before placing the tree in the stand, cut 2" from the base of the trunk.
• Make sure the tree is at least three feet away from any heat source, like fireplaces, radiators, candles, heat vents or lights.
• Make sure the tree is not blocking an exit.
• Add water to the tree stand. Be sure to add water daily.

Lighting the tree

• Use lights that have the label of an independent testing laboratory. Some lights are only for indoor or outdoor use.
• Replace any string of lights with worn or broken cords or loose bulb connections. Read manufacturer's instructions for number of light strands to connect. 
• Never use lit candles to decorate the tree.
• Always turn off Christmas tree lights before leaving home or going to bed.

After Christmas

• Get rid of the tree after Christmas. Dried-out trees are a fire danger and should not be left in the home or garage, or placed outside against the home. Check with your local community to find a recycling program. Bring outdoor electrical lights inside after the holidays to prevent hazards and make them last longer.

Hope this was helpful and thanks for reading my Safety Tidbits! Comments and questions are always welcome. ~ Bryan

P.S. If you have an interesting safety or health question please let me know.

Safety Tidbit 3.13 - Influenza

Safety Tidbit 3.13 – Influenza

Reference:   OSHA’s Employer Guidance Reducing All Workers' Exposures to Seasonal Flu Virus

                  NIOSH Influenza in the workplace

Well, flu season is in full swing.  Pandemic flu remains a concern for all employers. A pandemic can occur at any time and can be mild, moderate, or severe. The pandemic in 2009 was considered by CDC to be mild but it still created challenges for employers and showed that many workplaces were not prepared. I recently had a client that said nearly 50% of their workforce was out with the flu.

NIOSH makes four general recommendations to all workplaces:

1. Promote influenza vaccination among workers.

Encourage workers to get the seasonal flu vaccine when it is available.

2. Encourage proper hand and respiratory hygiene practices.

Workers, visitors, and clients should have easy access to supplies such as:        

a.     "No touch" wastebaskets for used tissues;

b.     Soap and water;

c.     Alcohol-based hand rubs;

d.     Disposable towels;

e.     Cleaning and sanitation materials.

3. Educate workers on influenza signs and symptoms.

Train workers about how flu can be transmitted in the workplace and what precautions they can use to prevent transmission.

4. Inform workers about what to do if they get sick.

Encourage sick workers to stay home. The CDC recommends that workers who have a fever and respiratory symptoms stay at home until 24 hours after their fever ends (100 degrees Fahrenheit [37.8 degrees Celsius] or lower), without the use of medication.

Ultimately, the workplace must be kept clean. Frequently clean all commonly touched work surfaces, work areas, and equipment (e.g., telephones, doorknobs, lunch areas, countertops, copiers, etc.). Use the cleaning agents that are usually used in these areas and follow the directions on the label. No additional disinfection beyond routine cleaning is recommended by CDC. Provide disinfectants and disposable towels for workers to use to clean their workspaces and surfaces and to keep work areas clean.

I guess, today during my annual physical, I will get my flu shot. Boy, I hope I don’t get sick.

Hope this was helpful and thanks for reading my Safety Tidbits! Comments and questions are always welcome. ~ Bryan

P.S. If you have an interesting safety or health question please let me know.

Safety Tidbit 3.12 - Radon

Safety Tidbit 3.12 – Radon

Reference:    National Safety Council website on Radon

                  US EPA’s Website on Radon – www.epa.gov/radon

                  PA DEP Website on Radon – www.dep.pa.gov/radon

Last Friday, I had a radon mitigation system installed in my home. This week I am sampling to see if the control is doing its job. So, why is Radon significant enough that I put in engineering controls into my home to reduce exposures?  The Environmental Protection Agency says nearly 1 out of every 15 homes in America is estimated to have elevated radon levels. Scientists calculate 15,000 to 22,000 lung cancer deaths in the U.S. each year are related to radon. The natural breakdown of uranium in soil, rock, and water releases radon gas. This radioactive gas can be detected in homes, offices, and schools

Radon gets into our homes through:

    Cracks in the solid floors

    Construction Joints

    Cracks in walls

    Gaps in suspended floors

    Gaps around service pipes

    Cavities in walls

    The water supply

Pennsylvania has one of the most severe radon problems in the United States. Approximately 40 percent of Pennsylvania homes have radon levels above Environmental Protection Agency's action guideline of 4 picocuries per liter. By the way, my house tested at 9.4. You can check your own home. You can go to your local home remodeling store and pick a test kit up for about $10.  Often, there are free sources as well as part of a public health outreach.

Well, I hope my system is doing its job. I had only clay under my home (no stone), so my mitigator used a high-suction versus high-volume pump to get the necessary negative pressure at the distal points in my basement. Now, I have a gentle hum outside my back wall that lets me know it’s working. The U-tube manometer on the pipe in the basement helps as well. 

Bottom line, if you don’t know the level of radon in your home, please test it, and if the levels are high, mitigate them. I was not a very good IH as I procrastinated way too long before putting in mitigation. Fortunately, I am only now looking to finish off my basement and haven’t spent much time down there.

Hope this was helpful and thanks for reading my Safety Tidbits! Comments and questions are always welcome. ~ Bryan

P.S. If you have an interesting safety or health question please let me know.

Safety Tidbit 3.11 - Exposure Calculations for Extended Work Shifts

Safety Tidbit 3.11 – Exposure Calculations for Extended Work Shifts

Reference:    OSHA RA Letter dated November 10, 1999

Last Friday, a fellow consultant pitched me one of their random phone call questions. She says the client has a problem with air monitoring. Not sure, could she have been any vaguer?  I called the client, and after a few questions and humble curiosity, I learned that the client’s concern dealt with determining a worker’s exposure when the shift is more than the traditional eight hours. More specifically, how would OSHA determine the worker’s exposure when they work a 12-hour shift.

Two methods dominate how to determine worker exposure when working extended shifts: the conservative way and the OSHA way.  The prudent technique is known as the Brief and Scala Model and has been around for a long time and is detailed in Patty’s Industrial Hygiene and Toxicology. A letter dated November 10, 1999, to the Regional Administrators details the OSHA way.

We’ll take the OSHA way first. OSHA says the compliance officer has two approaches to sample extended work shifts. First, the compliance officer tests what they believe to be the worst 8-hour work period. The second method involves the compliance officer being more creative and taking multiple samples that encompass the worst 8-hours of exposure.

The Brief and Scala Model adjusts the exposure limit based on how many hours worked and how many hours left for recuperation.

Reduction Factor = (8/h) * ((24-h)/16)

Then multiply the Permissible Exposure Limit (PEL) by the reduction factor yielding an adjusted PEL.

Scenario: A worker puts in a 12-hour shift and is exposed to substance X. How does the employer determine if the employee’s exposure is below the OSHA 8-hour time-weighted average Permissible Exposure Limit (PEL)?

OSHA will try to determine the worst eight hours of exposure and the sample during that time and compare the level to the Permissible Exposure Limit. Brief and Scala model gives a reduction factor of 50%. In other words, the employer will sample for the entire 12 hours and then compare the exposure level to half of the PEL.

When I explained this to the client, he said, so I just need to figure out what the worst 8 hours of exposure are, right?  Well, I tried.

Hope this was helpful and thanks for reading my Safety Tidbits! Comments and questions are always welcome. ~ Bryan

P.S. If you have an interesting safety or health question please let me know.

Safety Tidbit 3.10 - Nine Elements of a Respirator Program

Safety Tidbit 3.10 – Nine Elements of a Respirator Program

References: OSHA Respirator Standard 1910.134

Danyluk, Q., Hon, C.-Y., Neudorf, M., Yassi, A., Bryce, E., Janssen, B., & Astrakianakis, G. (2011). Health Care Workers and Respiratory Protection: Is the User Seal Check a Surrogate for Respirator Fit-Testing? Journal of Occupational & Environmental Hygiene, 8(5), 267–270. https://doi.org/10.1080/15459624.2011.566016

Seems like lately my clients have had more than the usual curiosity with respirators. Most of my clients know that I don’t like respirators and, as a devoted IH, I try to reduce the need for respirators in every workplace I go into. Therefore, I figured I needed to take a step back and list the nine basic elements of a respirator program as defined by OSHA [1910.134(c)(1)]:

1.     Procedures for selecting respirators for use in the workplace

2.     Medical evaluations of employees required to use respirators

3.     Fit testing procedures for tight-fitting respirators

4.     Procedures for proper use of respirators in routine and reasonably foreseeable emergency situations

5.     Procedures and schedules for cleaning, disinfecting, storing, inspecting, repairing, discarding, and otherwise maintaining respirators

6.     Procedures to ensure adequate air quality, quantity, and flow of breathing air for atmosphere-supplying respirators

7.     Training of employees in the respiratory hazards to which they are potentially exposed during routine and emergency situations

8.     Training of employees in the proper use of respirators, including putting on and removing them, any limitations on their use, and their maintenance

9.     Procedures for regularly evaluating the effectiveness of the program

Of course, the program is topped off with a “suitably trained” program administrator [1910.134(c)]. And, as I mention a couple of Safety Tidbits ago, for all tight-fitting respirators, the employer shall ensure that employees perform a user seal check each time they put on the respirator [1910.134(g)(1)(iii)].

An interesting side note, research has shown that even with a proper user respirator seal fit-check 25-30% of users fail a quantitative fit-test and 14-22% fail qualitative fit-testing. (Danyluk et al., 2011)  Seems like an awful lot of trouble to go through to still be unsure if workers are protected from the airborne hazard. Just saying…

Hope this was helpful and thanks for reading my Safety Tidbits! Comments and questions are always welcome. ~ Bryan

P.S. If you have an interesting safety or health question please let me know.

Safety Tidbit 3.09 – Duty to have Fall Protection and Leading-Edge Work

Safety Tidbit 3.09 – Duty to have Fall Protection and Leading-Edge Work

Reference: https://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=STANDARDS&p_id=10757

I was headed to a store earlier this week. The store was in a strip mall in which each store had a little roof above the main entrance or the “porch” of the store. The top of the porch was about 10 feet high and jut out from the front wall about 3 feet. Above the roof of each store had the company sign or logo. I noticed a new store going in where another store had recently left and the construction company was busy taking down the old and putting up the new sign and making any repairs to the roof while they were up on top.

I’m sure you all know where I’m headed with this observation. Interestingly, the worker did have a harness on but was not tied off to anything. Of course, I stopped and asked the worker if she felt safe working up on the roof with a harness on but not secured to anything? She said there was nowhere to tie off and she was extra careful. I mentioned about OSHA’s requirements for fall protection in 1926.501(b)(1): “Each employee on a walking/working surface (horizontal and vertical surface) with an unprotected side or edge which is 6 feet (1.8 m) or more above a lower level shall be protected from falling by the use of guardrail systems, safety net systems, or personal fall arrest systems.” I reminded her that wearing a harness is only part of the personal fall arrest system.

She then commented that her boss told her if OSHA comes by that she was to explain to them that she is doing leading-edge work and it was infeasible to use the fall arrest system. I told her that even leading-edge work needs to have fall protection. If not in the form of guardrails, safety nets or personal fall arrest systems then the employer must establish a fall protection plan and implement it [1926.501(b)(2)(i)] unless the employer shows that it is in fact infeasible. I pointed to a scissor lift parked inside the store used for working on the ceiling as an alternative or the possibility of erecting a scaffold that would give protection. Not to mention the various commercially-available portable, temporary guardrail systems that can be bought or rented.

I explained that just because the means to be safe is not immediately known or available does not mean that it is infeasible to be safe. Proper planning on her boss’ part could have ensured her safety.

Hope this was helpful and thanks for reading my Safety Tidbits! Comments and questions are always welcome. ~ Bryan

P.S. If you have an interesting safety or health question please let me know.

Safety Tidbit 3.08 – So you want to refinish your cabinets

Safety Tidbit 3.08 – So you want to refinish your cabinets

Reference: https://www.osha.gov/dsg/hazcom/whatishazcom.html

How many of you have refinished your kitchen cabinets or a piece of furniture? Wasn’t it a pain to strip off the old finish especially when covered with lacquer or polyurethane? You probably did what I did and go to your local hardware store or big box chain (e.g., Lowes or Home Depot) to get some stripper. Yup that’s what I did, but once I arrived at Lowes, I was surprised that there were quite a few types of paint removers to choose. So, the industrial hygienist in me began to inquire: Why so many? And What is the difference between them?

Some are in paste form and some in a liquid. Some say hazardous others say biodegradable. Being the novice, 
I asked the salesperson in the area for some help. She advised me that Formby’s was the “good” stuff and to stay away from the Citristrip™ that smells like oranges but doesn’t work as well and besides, Formby’s stripper is cheaper than Citristrip™. I prodded her a little and asked why does Formby’s work better than Citristrip™? Her response was disturbing: "Formby’s stripper works because it has some powerful chemical in it that the other one does not.” So now I changed my hat from novice to industrial hygienist and asked, Can I get more information about the two products and what is in them?  I think she knew she was had and tried to push me to her supervisor that she called for on her radio. 

Once the supervisor arrived I again asked for more information about the products such as the safety data sheet. The area supervisor pushed me to the customer service desk as “supposedly” all of the SDSs for any products sold are distributed there.  Unfortunately, I received the vacant stare when I asked for the SDS for each of the products I was considering using in my home. Just to keep the exercise going I offered, what happens if a commercial entity like a construction company comes in to buy the same items and asks for the SDS? That lit up the customer service desk’s light bulb above his head.  He shuffled me over to the commercial client desk on the other side of the store. He looked as relieved as the other two when they were able to hand me off to someone else. The client customer service representative was very confident as I asked my questions about the getting the SDSs for the products. He promptly gave me the www.NameofStore.com website and said I needed to go online, and all of the SDSs are there. Problem solved, right?

Well of course not, I got home to look up both items on the store’s website and could not find the SDS anywhere. So now my stubbornness kicks in, and I go to the manufacturers’ websites to get the SDSs. Although not particularly intuitive or easy to find after 15-20 minutes of searching on each of the products' sites I finally found what I was looking for. Moral of the story if your client is missing an SDS see if they have a systematic approach to get or find the SDS from the manufacturer or distributor. Unfortunately, with the manufacturers only having to provide the information electronically via an internet address very little has been done to ensure the address is accurate and actually leads the client to the information.

Hope this was helpful and thanks for reading my Safety Tidbits! Comments and questions are always welcome. ~ Bryan

P.S. If you have an interesting safety or health question please let me know.