Page 29 - OHS, May 2022

ELECTRIC TANKLESS WATER HEATERS
Following these strategies will help you stay compliant and keep workers safe.
published frequently, and health and safety professionals should stay informed about the hazards associated with the materials in use at their workplace.
Changes to the body of knowledge may also result in a change to the exposure limit. What may have been acceptable under the previous exposure limit might now be greater than a new limit. For instance, OSHA changed the permissible exposure limit for silica in 2016 and beryllium in 2017, prompting many companies to reevaluate their materials and processes as documented employee exposures exceeded the new limits.
Periodic Reassessment: It’s a Smart Idea
Health and safety professionals should plan to periodically review and reassess the entire characterization of an exposure group, starting from the preliminary judgements about exposures and working through the existing data and any changes to the workforce, workplace or the hazards since the previous exposure characterization was established. While the reassessment may simply confirm the existing characterization, it may bring to light an exposure that was previously overlooked or that you decide to revisit because you have more questions.
If the dataset is large enough, you may decide to use statistics to help determine where you need to collect more data. Some basic statistical tools and graphical presentations can visualize the spread of data, trends over time, or even predict the potential of an unacceptable exposure in an exposure group. The datasets may help you spot variances between seasons or identify issues based on outlying exposures (possibly a chemical release or an employee not following procedure?) or trends (did exposures increase before the maintenance department replaced that fan belt?).
Determining what exposures to reevaluate and when can be a challenge for health and safety professionals, regardless of their comfort level with industrial hygiene assessments. But you can determine what groups and which exposures need your priority and attention for the future by:
1. Knowing your workplace and hazards
2. Relying on prescribed schedules
3. Using the data already at your fingertips
Following these strategies will help you stay compliant and
keep workers safe. Now all that’s left to do is budget reevaluation assessments!
Beth Angus, MPH, CIH, is an industrial hygiene consultant with Safex, a health, safety and environmental consulting firm in Columbus, Ohio.
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