Page 81 - Occupational Health & Safety, July/August 2019

cartridges or dust cartridges. So picking the right cartridge is critical. You have to know what the chemical is in order to pick the right cartridge. I think a lot of times, people will use whatever cartridge they first find, because they think any cartridge will work.
“Another mistake that we see is people will use a cartridge and think that that car- tridge is good forever. They’ll put it in their locker and use it the next day—but really the chemical has already broken through, so they’re not being protected. Knowing the life of the cartridge and understanding the manufacturer’s recommendations for the use of that cartridge is very important.
“I also want to add that if someone is in a respirator, air monitoring is a must. Espe- cially in a hazmat situation or emergency response situation, air monitoring is such a critical piece of the whole process. Our lungs and respiratory system are so fragile and are really the main point of entry for many of the chemicals we deal with, that air monitoring is a critical piece before we put anyone in a respirator. Life safety is a number one priority and without air moni- toring information, we can’t properly select the right respiratory protection.
“It is also important to do a positive and negative pressure test every time you put a respirator on. So even though we fit test an- nually, which is an OSHA requirement, it is critical we check that positive and nega- tive pressure to make sure there is a good seal every time we put it on. That is another thing that is often overlooked.”
Vic: “One common misconception with emergency escape respirators is that, people think ‘Well, I don’t have to wear it, I just need to have it near me.’ For some people, ‘near me’ is ‘on my person,’ ‘in my truck,’ or ’50 feet away.’ The problem is, for a lot of chemicals, the nose is a very poor alert system and with something such as vinyl chloride, for example, you are actu- ally overexposed before you even smell it. So that’s one fallacy, that ‘my nose will tell me when I need to wear it.’ But the second fallacy is that with something acute, for example chlorine or HCl, what happens is you take a breath and then you kind of panic because your lungs are going to stop breathing as soon as they detect something like chlorine. They do not want to inhale that substance. When your lungs stop breathing, you immediately panic.
“A lot of people’s reaction will be to run. But with a lot of chemicals, at the danger-
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