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industrial hygiene
Industrial Hygiene deals with the recognition, evaluation and control of hazards. It has broad application including sampling and analysis, toxicology, ionizing and non-ionizing radiation (uv light, lasers, microwaves), noise & acoustics, indoor air quality, engineering & ventilation controls, respiratory protection, etc. During the early years at Copolymer, OSHA was promulgating new regulations on acrylonitrile (1980), asbestos (1988) and butadiene (1997). We began with stack sampling, air monitoring and lachrymator complaints and became a Certified Industrial Hygienist in 1990.
Our Industrial Hygiene program included butadiene, styrene, acrylonitrile, hydrazine, ammonia, particulates, asbestos, noise, carbon black and silica. We made ventilation surveys and exposure assessments. We represented Copolymer on IISRP committees evaluating butadiene monitoring and exposures. I also served as Radiation Safety Officer. We designed and implemented a process to safely handle hydrazine and hydrogen peroxide; we made over 140 batches without a process incident (and obtained a process patent).
Involvement with Material Safety Data Sheets resulted from DSM reorganization. The best implementations of OSHA’s Hazard Communication standard (29 CFR 1910.1200) requirements for Safety Data Sheets followed the ANSI MSDS format (Z400.1). GHS is the more recent best practice, implemented in the EU and now supported by OSHA.
Expertise includes Industrial Hygiene, Radiation Protection & annual audits, Safety Data Sheets and HazCom compliance. I currently hold Louisiana Lead Inspector and Risk Assessor certifications as well as asbestos inspector, management planner and project designer.
An asbestos Negative Exposure Assessment (NEA) enables termination of monitoring and reduced isolation, ventilation and respirator requirements according to the asbestos regulations. This is an opportunity for abatement contractors to reduce liability and to improve productivity and competitive position. The competent person certifies that subsequent activities closely resemble the job for a 12-month period. Personnel exposures are not normally distributed (bell curve), but rather geometric, so it is usually difficult to look at the data and say that there is a statistically reliable high degree of certainty that employees will not be overexposed. Contact me for additional information.
We are required to accumulate Certification Maintenance Points to maintain our CIH; free CM point opportunities can be found here.
