Strippers can take you breath away - permanently

Methylene chloride, also called dichloromethane, is the solvent common in many paint strippers.  The widely available products with labels that warn of cancer risks but do not make clear the possibility of rapid death. In areas where the fumes can concentrate, workers and consumers risk asphyxiation or a heart attack while taking care of seemingly routine tasks.  PublicIntergrity.org has researched the many deaths that have occurred while using these products and the report can be found here: http://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/09/21/17991/common-solvent-keeps-killing-workers-consumers  It's a lengthy read, but it could save your life.

In the fine print of most labels they manufacturers allude to the precautions necessary when using their products, but without a magnifying glass and good lighting, the labels are often difficult to read and easily ignored.  While these products can be bought at home-improvement and general retail stores across the U.S., the specialty respirators and polyvinyl-alcohol gloves needed to handle them safely are not usually available from those same retailers.  OSHA and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health say only a full-face respirator with a separate air supply, or exhaust ventilation to remove the fumes, will provide sufficient protection.

Setting aside longer-term health concerns, such as cancer, the danger posed by methylene chloride is its one-two punch when fumes accumulate. Because it turns into carbon monoxide in the body, it can starve the heart of oxygen and prompt a heart attack. The chemical also acts as an anesthetic at high doses, so its victims slump over, no longer breathing, because the respiratory centers of their brains switch off.

READ AND UNDERSTAND YOUR CHEMICAL PRODUCT LABELS AND SDS

THIS REALLY IS A "DO OR DIE" SITUATION

Guess what? - OSHA is looking at theatre shop operations

Below is an article published on the Department of Labor's OSHA.gov web site:

Region 3 News Release: 13-1492-NEW (osha 13-72)
July 25, 2013
Contact: Leni Fortson      Joanna Hawkins
Phone: 215-861-5102      215-861-5101
Email: uddyback-fortson.lenore@dol.gov      hawkins.joanna@dol.gov

Jersey City, NJ, theatrical equipment company cited by US Department of
    Labor's OSHA for exposing workers to workplace safety and health hazards

JERSEY CITY, N.J. – The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited Acadia Scenic Inc., which builds scenery for the entertainment industry, with 22 safety and health violations, including two willful. The citations followed an April inspection, prompted by the agency's Health-High-Hazard Top 50 Local Emphasis Program and its Amputations and Combustible Dust Emphasis Program. Proposed penalties total $49,600.

The willful violations, with $28,000 in penalties, were cited for a lack of guarding on hand-fed circular ripsaws and crosscut table saws. A willful violation is one committed with intentional, knowing or voluntary disregard for the law's requirements, or with plain indifference to worker safety and health.

The 19 serious violations, with $21,200 in penalties, include the company's failure to keep the workplace clean and orderly; prevent accumulations of explosive dust; provide railings on stairs; establish or implement a written respiratory protection program for workers required to wear respirators; have fire extinguishers mounted and readily accessible for use; and provide an educational program on the general principles of fire extinguisher use and hazards involved for workers expected to fight incipient stage fires. The company was also cited for failing to provide machine guarding for a miter saw; provide spreaders and nonkickback devices on two hand-fed circular ripsaws; properly adjust a work rest on grinding machinery; determine each employee's exposure to methylene chloride; provide appropriate gloves and eyewash facilities for workers using methylene chloride-containing adhesives; and develop and implement a written hazard communication program that includes training for workers exposed to hazardous chemicals. A serious violation occurs when there is a substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result from a hazard about which the employer knew or should have known.

"Each of these hazards threaten the company's ability to provide employees with a safe and healthful work environment, and should be corrected immediately," said Kris Hoffman, director of OSHA's Parsippany Office. "OSHA will continue to hold employers responsible when they fail to protect their workers."

Inspectors also cited the company for one other-than-serious violation, which carries a $400 penalty, for not recording a workplace injury on the employer's OSHA Form 300 Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses. An other-than-serious violation is one that has a direct relationship to job safety and health, but probably would not cause death or serious physical harm.

Acadia Scenic Inc. has 15 business days from receipt of the citations to comply, ask for an informal conference with OSHA's area director in Parsippany or contest the citations and proposed penalties before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

To ask questions, obtain compliance assistance, file a complaint, or report workplace hospitalizations, fatalities or situations posing imminent danger to workers, the public should call OSHA's toll-free hotline at 800-321-OSHA (6742) or the agency's area offices.

Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers are responsible for providing safe and healthful workplaces for their employees. OSHA's role is to ensure these conditions for America's working men and women by setting and enforcing standards, and providing training, education and assistance. For more information, visit http://www.osha.gov.

SDS, not MSDS - This is the path we chose.

These times they are a changin'.  If you haven't noticed, or been given notice, the same old way of tracking hazardous materials around your shop has changed.  Changed for the better, too.  Just like the CocaCola advertizements from the 70's (We'd like to teach the World to sing, in perfect harmony . . . .), we really did get the world to put aside their petty differences and agree on something that was good for everyone.  Congresses and Parliaments around the world could learn from this!

Introducing GHS - Globally Harmonized System - brought to you from your friends at the International Standards Organization (ISO) with help from the Unitedd Nations (UN).  What we once referred-to a MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheets) are now called just SDS (Safety Data Sheet).

OSHA is on-board with this initiative, too, and they have declared that all employers must train their employees about the new standard by December 1, 2013 in order to be in compliance with their revised Hazard Communication standard.  This means training on the new / revised labeling requirements, signal words, and pictograms (icons).  Before this standard was adopted it was frequently  difficult to locate all the pertinent information you might need in an emergency - the new format strives to simplify this and make all the forms more consistent.

ISHN magazine (Industrial Safety and Hygiene News), has put together an overview of the GHS requirements that you can download from their web site for free.  You do have to sign-up for their free magazine, but that is a worthwhile read in itself, so no inconvenience there at all.  Click on over to:  www.ishn.com/articles/95846-osha-ghs-training-must-be-completed-by-december-1-2013

Here are some more resources to get you oriented to this new way of thinking:

OSHA's GHS Web Site with a complete indexed version of the GHS Purple Book:
www.osha.gov/dsg/hazcom/ghs.html  Yes, make that a permanent Bookmark in your web browser!

GHS 101: Safety Data Sheets (SDS) from msdsonline.com (I guess they may have to change their web name now!):  www.msdsonline.com/blog/ghs-101-safety-data-sheets-sds

HCS Labeling and HazCom 2012 Guide By DuraLabel
www.graphicproducts.com/articles/ghs-label-information.php

Getting a Grip

ISO Symbol for 'Gloves Required'

We take many parts of our lives for granted, and we don’t typically realize how important they are until one of them gets injured or goes missing.  When it comes to body parts, our hands tend to fall in that category.  How would you cope if one or both of your hands were missing or out of commission?  Providing proper PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) to guard against injuries can help, however, the selection of PPE for hands can be vast and varied.  Here are a few aspects of glove selection that should be considered.

Physical Injuries to your hands can come in several different ways. Physical trauma can get ugly fast, and be quite painful.

• Crushing can happen when heavy loads of forces compress the hand. Mild impacts can cause bruising of the skin and underlying muscles.  More severe forces can break the skin by forcing the flesh from between the incoming object and the underlying bones.  Wearing gloves with hard-shell knuckle guards and/or rubber bumpers across the backs of the hand and fingers can be beneficial.  Brightly colored gloves can be helpful here because they make your hands more visible to both yourself and others.  Wearing black gloves when loading counterweights on a dark the fly gallery is a good way to get your pinkies smashed!
• Abrasion is caused when your skin is rubbed tangent to the skin surface.  Continued mild scuffing can build callouses, where continued rubbing can cause blisters to form.  More abrasive surfaces can tear-away chunks that you would rather stayed attached.  ANSI / IESA 105-2011 Abrasion Resistance is rated on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the least, and 5 being the best.  For gloves tested to the European EN 388 standard, the scale is 1-4.
• Impalement or Punctures can come from many different types of sources like wood splinters, needles, screw and nail tips (think about that the next time you reach around something to grasp it without looking to see what’s there first . . .), and sharp ends of wires, glass shards, or sheared metal.  ANSI / IESA 105-2011 Puncture Resistance is rated on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the least, and 5 being the best.   For gloves tested to the European EN 388 standard, the scale is 1-4.
• Cutting occurs when there is a sharp edge like a saw blade, knife, freshly sheared metal, or an unpolished glass edge.  ANSI / IESA 105-2011 Cut Resistance is rated on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the least, and 5 being the best.  For gloves tested to the European EN 388 standard, the scale is also 1-5.

Thermal Injuries can happen when the surface temperature of an object is beyond the ability for skin to dissipate the energy differential.

• Extreme Cold can be caused by handling dry ice (frozen carbon dioxide) can result in freeze burns.  Grabbing a cold handle on a truck door after it has been sitting in sub-zero weather can do this, too.
• Extreme Heat is most often encountered with hot lighting equipment which can burn you and/or raise blisters that will take a while to heal. The nozzle ends of heat guns used for accelerated paint stripping / drying or activating heat-shrinkable tubing can also be hazardous, as can soldiering irons.  Welding can expose your skin to both high intensity UV rays which can result in sunburn-like skin irritation, as well as the more common burns from molten metal spatter.  Synthetic glove materials (rubbers and plastics) can melt when exposed to extreme heat, so using cloth or leather type products typically are a better choice if you don’t like the feel of molten plastic on your skin.

There are additional ANSI / IESA ratings for Heat Degradation Resistance (melting), Conductive Heat Resistance, and Conductive Cold Resistance.

Chemical Exposure creates two additional categories of ANSI / IESA ratings:

• Chemical Permeation is when the glove may be porous or absorbent to the chemicals you are using and do not create a protective shield between you and the exposure chemical.  Open weave fabrics (natural or synthetic) may be comfortable to wear because they breathe well, but fluids can flow right through them.  Leather may offer a bit of protection as most fluids don’t soak through them rapidly, but they will saturate and allow undesirable chemicals to come in contact with your skin.
• Chemical Degradation is when the gloves disintegrate or otherwise decompose due to a chemical reaction with the chemicals they are exposed to. It is ALWAYS a good idea to dip test the glove (without a hand inside it) you are considering using to see how it reacts BEFORE you put on the glove and use it.

Melted Gloves - That could be your skin!

If a glove has a leak or gets torn, then the chemicals can get inside the glove and be forced tightly against your skin.  This is where the tear, puncture, and cut resistance can become very important.   Know before you go!

If you have questions about the compatibility between a glove material and a chemical, then look at the Chemrest Chemical Resistant Glove site at: www.chemrest.com   They have an interactive tool that shows you the best type of glove materials for use with many common chemicals.

Vibration Exposure can happen when you are using an orbital sander, reciprocating saw (hand-held jig-saw), or hammer-drill. These types of protective gloves have special vibration energy damping pads built into the palms of the glove to minimize the mechanical energy transferred to your hands. Prolonged exposure to excessive vibration can cause nerve numbness (tingling sensation or ‘dullness’) and even permanent nerve damage.

Electrical Contact can be deadly, so the electrical insulation factor is an important consideration when working around live electrical items.  Of course working ‘hot’ requires special permits, so unless you are a fully qualified electrical worker, please make sure that you power-off and/or unplug equipment before you attempt even the most basic of repairs.

Gloves with Grippy Dots

Traction - Getting a Grip can be important for many tasks around the workplace, so having gloves with a rubberized or tacky palm and fingers can actually reduce your end-of the day fatigue.  These gloves give you a little extra traction so that you are less likely to be fumble-fingers and drop things (particularly on your feet!).  This can speed the loading and unloading of trucks, too.

Snagability - Not Getting Caught-Up in Things can be a real safety concern.   It is commonly recommended that you should not wear gloves when you are working drills, power saws, planners, and other equipment that might draw your hands into the machine or tool should they get a bit too close. In these cases, it may be better to lose a bit’o flesh than to be sucked into the machine and loose much more.

Keeping the Bugs Out should always be a check list item.  When you leave your gloves laying around the shop or in the bottom of a tool box it is always possible that spiders and mites can set-up house inside them (they like small dark places), so the next time you pull the gloves out to use them, you are instigating a home invasion for those pests and they’ll fight back by biting you.  Keep your gloves someplace clean, dry, and bug-free.  After the sweat dries, store them in a large ziplock bag.

Fingers: Count-em’ 1 to 10!

PPE – Pick the right tool for the job.

(This post first published in TheatreFace Online Blogs)