Health and Safety Middle East | Issue 20
Confined Space Safety
POSSIBLE HAZARDS IN CONFINED SPACES
Exploring Respiratory Protective Equipment
It's 7am, my first week on the job as the newly designated safety guy for a fabrication shop. The lunch room is filled with 35 men, fatigued, overworked, and absolutely not interested in this whole new ‘safety programme’ the company is embarking on. It's been a tough week getting any signs of interest or cooperation out of these guys including the supervisors. I'm an outsider with a white hard hat - I should have opted for a blue one; they think I'm a safety cop giving them orders. This morning I decided to give a ten minute talk on respiratory protection and add to it a bit of drama, just to get their attention. A small selection of RPE is stuffed in my duffel bag. "Good morning guys, how you all doing?" I asked cheerfully and smiling. Blank stares. In the far back two guys are chit chatting about last night's game. "Today I want to talk about respiratory protection. Did you know that according to OSHA, 63% of workers who wear respiratory protection actually wear it incorrectly, or wear the wrong type for the job?" I actually just made this up on the fly, the number sounded good and realistic. One guy picks up his newspaper and goes off into his own world. "Did you also know that one out of five of you here in this room, who require respiratory protection for the job you do, will actually acquire a respiratory illness like lung cancer, lung disease, silicosis, asbestosis or emphysema?" Now I got the attention of a couple of them. Again this is just information I pulled from thin air; I bet you would have believed it. Does it really matter if the statistic is one out of five, or six or seven? Would it make you think or feel any different? "I want to show you a selection of respiratory protection or RPE for short, their purpose and how to fit them on your face." I reached in the bag and pulled out "This is a dust mask. You obviously know that but does anyone know what the N95 stands for?" No answers. Two guys look at each other and snicker. I feel they are mocking me. "Well the N stands for not resistant to oil and the 95 means it will filter at least 95% of airborne particles. For your type of work I would use a dust mask when pushing a broom, or walking into a dusty environment for a short period of time. You probably also know that the fit isn't the greatest so there is a risk of contaminants entering through the openings between your face and the dust mask." I pulled the dust mask's two straps over my head, adjusted them, fit the face piece and squeezed the metal nose clip snug around the bridge of my nose. "Easy as that, I'm sure all of you have put one of these on, but I just wanted to quickly give you a demonstration." They look at me as if I'm a kindergarten teacher. "I need a volunteer to help me out with the next RPE." Half of the guys quickly stare straight down at the table in front of them. "Ok... How about you?" I said pointing at Chris, a young guy to my right only three months with the company, with ambitions of being a machinist. "Come right up here." He gets up shyly. "Ok, so what we have here is an air purifying half face respirator or half mask for short, and this one here is a full face respirator. This half mask is equipped with an organic vapour cartridge; notice the black labelling - it's colour coded according to NIOSH standards. Plus we have fitted these white R95 pre-filters on the surface of the cartridge. The ‘R’ stands for medium resistant to oil and the 95 means it will filter 95% of the airborne particles; this filter's purpose is to block airborne particles like dust so they do not enter the organic vapour cartridge and then your nose. The organic vapour cartridge is designed to block volatile organic compounds. An example in the shop would be if you were to do some spray painting or welding, these cartridges would protect you from the spray mist or the welding fumes to a certain degree. It's very important to read the labels and instruction guides that come with cartridges or filters to understand their purpose and limitations. "Now we will demonstrate a respirator fit test on Chris." Chris was scruffy this morning and had a bushy goatee, so he was the perfect person to demonstrate just how important it is to have a clean shaven face when wearing a respirator. "Chris, show us how you put on this half mask and then do your negative and positive test." Well, Chris did put on the respirator properly and fitted it snugly, but he did not know what a positive and negative test was. I used my hands to demonstrate; Chris copied. Now, I should have done the demonstration with the cartridges off, because it is quite difficult to perform the negative test when you are struggling to seal the cartridges' large round surface with your hands. "We are now going to test the seal of the face piece. Notice Chris' facial hair - how many of you think his hair will be a problem?" A couple guys laughed. One shouted "Oh yeah, he'll learn quickly." I threw in some regulation info while getting the irritant smoke kit ready. "Work Safe BC regulations state that there must not be any obstruction between your face and the face seal of the respirator - this includes facial hair - and furthermore, it states that a person must be fit tested to wear a respirator. “We will get into the practice of doing a fit test each time you are issued a new respirator, when there are changes to the structure of your face and at least once per year. For those of you who wear prescription glasses and a full face mask, we will provide you with custom frame inserts filled with your prescription, so that you will have an effective face seal." The irritant smoke tube is ready for puffing. "We are going to use this irritant smoke to test the respirator's seal around Chris' face." Just looking at Chris' face you could see that it did not have a seal - clumps of hair were protruding from his chin. Several puffs of smoke around Chris' chin and he begins to cough and choke. I continued puffing the smoke, redness flushed his face, tears dripped from his eyes, he jumped away coughing and ripped the mask from his face. "This irritant smoke is a great way to test your seal because as you can see, Chris is very uncomfortable; but what if Chris worked today with this respirator and all that hair and he was exposed to vapours that he couldn't smell or taste and slowly he was being poisoned? This is exactly how respiratory illness occurs; it's a long progressive poisoning of your lungs, your blood stream, your nervous system - it affects your entire body. “But what if Chris was exposed to a lethal atmosphere? We must always ensure that we are protected for the respiratory hazards we face. Thanks for your participation Chris." Ten minutes is up, the guys get up and leave just like school kids at the ring of the home time bell.
Fall Protection
MINIMISING THE RISK OF FALLS FROM HEIGHT
One in the Eye for Safety and Testing
WE’VE COME A LONG WAY
Preventing Eye Injuries
Every day an estimated 1,000 eye injuries occur in American workplaces. The financial cost of these injuries is enormous - more than $300 million per year in lost production time, medical expenses and workers’ compensation. No dollar figure can adequately reflect the personal toll these accidents take on the injured workers.
Safety on the High Seas
Although there have been no work related deaths in the UK offshore industry for the last four years, health and safety professionals know that if disaster does strike it can have catastrophic human consequences.
The Importance of Training
It is the responsibility of any company, no matter where they are located, to keep their employees safe and free from harm. In a lot of countries, an Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) act or regulation will define the roles and responsibilities of various workplace parties in establishing and maintaining a safe and healthy workplace. If the workplace parties are not aware of, or do not understand these roles and responsibilities, the employees' ability to function safely is compromised and could lead to fatalities. In certain small workplaces that are without the most basic knowledge, employees are limited in their ability to identify and discuss hazards and the solutions necessary to mitigate the hazards. Employees need to know how to work safely and without risks to health, and they must know about your health and safety policy; how you implement it and the part they have to play. All employees must be aware of their health and safety responsibilities towards not only themselves, but also towards other employees and people visiting the work premises. The nature of your business and its activities might mean employees need training in specific areas. For example, staff might need to learn how to handle and dispose of cleaning chemicals, or how to operate a forklift truck safely. Employees may also need training to ensure that you comply with environmental regulations; for example, if they work with hazardous or controlled substances or gases. Managers or supervisors will also require training in what they have to do to help you deliver your health and safety policy, and how best to manage the specific health and safety risks faced by your business. As an employer, you may need training to ensure you are up to date with your legal duties: you must know how to identify hazards and how to control the risks caused by your activities. Training is likely to be particularly important in certain circumstances. For instance when: • New people join your business, from employees to work placement students • Employees change jobs within the business • An existing risk increases, perhaps because of a greater volume of work • A new risk is identified, such as when new equipment is purchased Remember that refresher training is usually performed annually, and it is of particular importance so as to avoid the creeping onset of complacency. Training must also be provided during work time and at your expense. Also, any staff representatives are entitled to paid time off work for their training. One of the ways in which employers meet their legal obligation to impart health and safety information, and in doing so protect their workforce, is through training. A recent systematic review conducted by Robson et al for the Institute for Work & Health (IWH) concluded that workplace training and education have a positive impact on the health and safety practices of workers. There was, however, insufficient evidence that training on its own reduced injury rates. These findings support the multifaceted approach set out in the recommendations of the panel; filling gaps in training requirements, promoting key elements of OHS performance such as management commitment, encouraging worker participation, influencing societal norms, and creating processes to identify and remove hazards. To make significant improvements to workplace health and safety, all of these elements are necessary. In the United States, employers must have an overall safety programme including relative site specific safety information where applicable. The safety training programme should cover topics such as: • Accident prevention and safety promotion • Safety compliance • Accident and emergency response • Personal protective equipment • Safety practises • Equipment and machinery • Chemical and hazardous materials’ safety • Workplace hazards • Employee involvement Employers must document all training. Creating a training matrix will simplify keeping track of the training process: who has been trained, when they were trained, the training topic, and when it is time for refresher training. Employees must also sign an official sign-in sheet provided by the employer that can serve as proof that employees received proper training. The sign-in sheet must have a broad description of what is being covered in the training. Tests or quizzes on the presented material can help gauge employee understanding of the material and highlight topics that need to be reviewed. The non English speaking population is consistently growing in many industries and in the Middle East there are many multilingual workforces, so it is important that employers provide bilingual training for those workers. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires that all employees be properly trained.
