Page 30 - Occupational Health & Safety, November 2018

RESPIRATORY PROTECTION
Monitoring for Respiratory Hazards— Challenges and Opportunities in the Workplace
Monitoring and sampling for dusts, gases, vapors, and mists should be a part of any personal exposure assessment initiative and is not only accepted practice, it represents best practice when done correctly.
BY STEVE OCHS
Of the “Top 10” OSHA standards that were cited in 2017, respiratory protection, gen- eral industry (29 CFR 1910.134) ranked fourth—after fall protection, hazard com-
munication, and scaffolding. In general industry standards, only hazard communication citation was more prevalent.
Now, with the new construction standard for silica (29 CFR 1926.1153) requiring employers to limit ex- posure to this very common material, you can be sure more citations are going to be happening. In fact, it was reported in summer 2018 that a contractor was recently cited for willful and serious violations of the new rule for which their state’s OSHA compliance of- fice has proposed a fine of more than $300,000.
Why So Much Emphasis on
Respiratory Exposures?
Occupational exposure to deadly chemical and physi- cal agents typically occurs through one of the three common routes: inhalation, ingestion, and absorp- tion. Of these pathways into the human body, inha- lation is the fastest because the respiratory system is directly linked to the circulatory system. Thus, while the process of breathing provides us with the oxygen we need to survive, many of the contaminants that are in the air we may breathe at a work site are in a form that allows them to be deposited deep into the lungs. Because exposure to these contaminants is not always able to be removed through engineering controls and administrative controls become restrictive to produc- tion, PPE in the form of multiple kinds and types of respirators is a commonplace solution.
Among the most cited standards, respiratory pro- tection can easily be described as perhaps the most complicated and one that presents uniquely diverse challenges to the occupational safety and health pro- fessional. When it comes to understanding the risks, quantifying exposure levels and implementing the controls needed to ensure a safe workplace for all em- ployees under their areas of responsibility, there are literally thousands of physical and chemical agents that can cause occupational illnesses.
The Importance (and Challenges)
of Monitoring Exposures
The extremely wide range of chemical, physical and even biological agents that can cause serious harm to workers spans across all industries and occupations, from those working in manufacturing and service in- dustries to workers in agriculture, oil and gas produc- tion, chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturing, to first responders.
As such, the more you know about how to detect and monitor for the presence of these bad actors, the better prepared you and your workers will be to pre- vent illness, injury, or death. For the proper selection of PPE, it becomes extremely important to monitor for and/or sample the exposure levels of these air- borne contaminants wherever possible, using various NIOSH-approved methods.
For an injurious or deadly material to be inhaled,
26 Occupational Health & Safety | NOVEMBER 2018
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