Industrial Hygiene in Construction

You know those lead testing kits from the hardware store?  They seem extremely handy, however, they are a bit misleading.

LEAD CHECK ™ and LEAD ALERT ™ use a chemical (rodizonate-based) to instantly tell you if you have lead in your paint. If you use this kit, and the color changes, you have lead present.

They are quick and easy, but have a few HUGE downsides.

• OSHA has stated in a letter of interpretation (7/2003) that these should not be used for determining if lead isn’t present. In other words, you can’t rely on a test that says, “no lead!”
• These kits only check the “top layer” of paint – not the coat of paint below the one you are testing. You must test each layer.
• These kits will not tell you how much lead you have (what percentage). You knew these kits didn’t do this already, but this is useful information!
• Some chemicals may interfere with these type of kits. If you have chromium in your paint, the kit may say there is no lead present, but in fact, the chromium has interfered with the true results.

The biggest issue is that you need to have objective air monitoring to prove that your airborne levels of lead are not overexposing your employees.  A true bulk test (of paint) gives you great information. It tells you the percentage of lead in the paint. This, and your air sampling data, can be used again for future projects. It will also tell you which colors of paint have the highest lead.  Be safe out there!

OSHA states that:

• Medical exam – must be completed prior to wearing a respirator. The individual must be examined again if there are significant changes to their medical/respiratory system.
• Fit Testing– this must be performed yearly (either qualitative or quantitative fit test, depending on the respirator) and be performed for each type of respirator worn (not for each filter used)
• Fit Checks- these are performed every time an individual puts on a respirator. Cover the inlets and breathe in (mask should collapse). Cover the exhale valve and breathe out (mask should expand)

Individual cards for employees are not required. Sometimes, when filing the medical exam, the physician/medical reviewer, will not require the individual to come into the office. As a best practice, I would have every employee fill out the paperwork and see someone in the medical office. Employees have every reason to want to pass this “exam” and they may leave out things on the written exam that are easily discovered (or may be obvious) when someone sees them in person.

Whom enforces the rules?

Based upon my previous post, and my reference to  MSHA (Mine Safety & Health Administration),  I realized I should back up a bit and explain why MSHA matters. The differences of who is regulating the site is subtle, confusing, and terribly important. Given the right cirumstances, all 3 could be at one location with a different boundary-line. And there are others too…

• MSHA– Mine Safety & Health Administration.   It is clear that if you are working in a shaft mine, they are the ones who regulate you. However, the not-clear part is if you own a rock crusher and occasionally decide to crush some rock. MSHA jurisdiction if you sell the rock. If you crush it onsite, and leave it for your own use, then it might be OSHA. In Oregon, most of the MSHA activity is through metal/non-metal surface mines.

• Federal OSHA – Occupational Safety & Heath Administration. Governs anyone who is an employee (who has employees)  So what do they do? They enforce, help, govern, provide assistance for employees. In some states, Federal OSHA doesn’t control your state because many states have their own state-run OSHA which does these tasks. Some states without a state-run OSHA are: Idaho, Colorado, Texas.  Federal OSHA classifies the ares into regions. (Idaho is region 10) I’m not an attorney, but I’ve heard that if you are an owner (or in some cases there can be multiple owners) and are not paid hourly, and don’t have any employees, OSHA does NOT have jurisdiction.

• State OSHA – (aka Oregon-OSHA, L&I (Labor & Industries -Washington), CAL/OSHA (California), Arizona (Industrial Commission of Arizona) These states (and others) have their own state-run OSHA program. The states are required to adopt the Federal OSHA regulations so they can be “at least as effective as” Federal OSHA. Some states have more-stringent rules. This is fine as long as it is as-protective-as the Federal rules.  An interesting fact is that in Oregon there are tribal Indian lands. Even though we have a state-run program, Federal OSHA has jurisdiction if you are working on that land. Another example of this is railroads.

• Others – Now, there may be other rules and regulations depending on where you are working and what substances you are handling. There is the Department of Transportation (DOT). City rules, Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

• Other-Others – To make it more-confusing, these are just the “rules”. There are many, and I would argue, better, resources for the most-protective guidance in employee health & safety. Some of these examples are: American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH), American National Standards Institute (ANSI), and National Institute of Occupational Safety & Heath (NIOSH), among others.

My opinion is the rules should be secondary to this:  Are your employees safe? If we are protecting them, the rules are only a start.