Industrial Hygiene in Construction

This is cutting edge here, folks. A “new” mineral has been found to cause mesothelioma. As you might know, asbestos exposure can cause 3 diseases; 1. asbestosis, 2. lung cancer, and 3. mesothelioma. Previously it was thought that only asbestos exposures could cause asbestosis and mesothelioma. (Side: This is why late-night attorney’s wonder if you have those diseases….if you do, you were exposed at some point)

However, there is a new suspect: Erionite. (wiki it here)

This new mineral has been documented to cause mesothelioma and has asbestos-like physical properties.

The mineral is found in many places, near volcanoes. Below is a map from the fairwarning.org site.  Also, here is a link to the MSN republish of the fairwarning article. I guarantee there will be more news  in the media about this in the future. Here is the scientific article from University of Hawaii.

Another MSHA site where they are actually not crushing rock or selling it. This location only screens the rock/dirt and loads it. It’s transported to another location where they screen it again (wet, this time) and sell it. They had two loaders and an excavator working this pit. We would have normally performed air and noise monitoring at the at the crusher location. However, the crusher was actually not crushing rock and was only screening the rock wet. At this location they were at least screening dry. We figured this would be the best chance of finding any dust. However, we found hardly anything.

There was nothing too exciting or unique, other than a strong wind in the afternoon and a pesky pheasant that remained out of site, but kept cackling.

As I compiled information for a presentation titled, “Industrial Hygiene in Construction”, I wondered how to approach this topic. What I decided, is that I would start with the most frequent, the most common, with the most room for improvement. So, my list begins.

The caveat is that this list is NOT a list of the relative hazard compared to each other. This is just the IH hazards I see the most frequently. They should really NOT be compared to each other.

1. Silica – in regards to airborne overexposures and lack of controls.
2. Noise – in regards to overexposures and lack of adequate controls.
3. Lead – in regards to compliance with OSHA / EPA.
4. Asbestos – in regards to training employees and compliance with OSHA/EPA
5. Welding – in regards to overexposures and lack of controls.

The actual application of the fireproofing is not a high silica producer. Mainly due to the “wet” product as it’s applied. It’s messy but keeping it wet keeps the silica from becoming airborne.

However, someone has to mix the dry product and make the slurry. This individual has an exhaust ventilation above (see picture). He/she opens the bag into the mixing hopper, adds water and then dumps it into the pump hopper. When opening the bag, a plume of dust escapes and may cause an issue.  The MSDS states 1 – 10 % quartz silica (by weight) in the bag. We will know the results in about 2 weeks. Look for the update.

These guys are building a top-notch building…