The term "occupational exposure" refers to a potentially harmful exposure to hazards chemicals in the workplace. These may be toxic substances, biological hazards, or environmental hazards such as high noise levels. Two good examples of workplaces where there is a risk occupational exposure to hazardous materials are laboratories and medical facilities. We'll use these to show how workers can be protected from occupational exposure to toxic and biological hazards.
Hazardous chemicals in laboratories include irritants, sensitizers, carcinogens, toxins, corrosives, hepatotoxins, nephrotoxins, and neurotoxins. There are substances that will harm the skin, eyes, lungs, mucous membranes, and hematopoietic systems. How are workers protected against occupational exposure to this wide range of hazards?
OSHA has established mandatory Permissible Exposure Limits (PELs) for over 500 substances. Employees must be protected from occupation exposures that exceed these limits. However, OSHA recognizes that their exposure standards are out-of-date and do not provide adequate protection. This has happened because the legal hurdles for updating OSHA PELs are significant.
OSHA will continue to enforce the mandatory PELs, however, for employees to be safe, occupational exposures should be kept below the limits established by organizations such as NIOSH and ACGIH. To help employers protect their workers from harmful occupational exposures to chemicals, OSHA has created two resources:
OSHA has created an online toolkit that helps employers replace hazardous chemical with safer chemicals. The toolkit uses a step-by-step approach to walk employers through the information, methods, and tools they need to make an informed chemical substitution decision. This OSHA toolkit is available at: www.osha.gov.
While not legally enforceable, other organizations have developed occupational exposure limits that are more realistic. OSHA has created a set of tables that help employers voluntarily adopt the newer, more protective workplace exposure limits. The tables provide a side-by-side comparison of the following:
The tables are available online at: www.osha.gov.
If there are any indications that an occupational exposure to harmful substances might be above the action level, employers must periodically measure worker exposures. The exposure action level is the threshold that triggers increased monitoring measures such as air monitoring and medical examinations.
Monitoring must continue until employee exposures are consistently below the action level.
Yes. If your workplace has hazardous chemicals, there must be a written chemical hygiene plan. The plan must include the following:
Workers must be provided with training that provides information about the chemical hazards in their workplace. They must be trained before starting to work in an area where hazardous chemicals are present, and prior to any work that may result in a potential exposure to hazardous materials.
Employers must inform employees about:
Employees must be trained in the following:
Biological hazards are living organisms, or products of living organisms, that have the ability to cause illness, disease, or death in humans. They include pathogenic micro-organisms and viruses such as HIV, Hepatitis, avian flu, and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. They include toxins, spores, fungi, parasitic worms, and bio-active substances. Biological hazards also include the transmitters of disease, also known as " biological vectors." Examples of these include mosquitoes, ticks, and agricultural animals.
In the general public the most common route for biological agents to enter the body is when inhaled. Other potential routes include being ingested (eaten), absorbed, or through cuts of punctures of the skin. Once inside the body they can quickly multiply and be passed to other people.
Common ways for biological agents to be directly transmitted include:
Other infectious agents are transmitted indirectly:
Contact with body fluids is a common way for biological agents to infect someone in the workplace. All body fluids, including blood, secretions (except sweat), and excretions have the potential to contain infectious agents.
Blood has the greatest potential for transmitting an infection. Even if blood is not visible, saliva and other secretions may contain small quantities of blood and may transmit an infection. Preventing occupational exposures to blood, and other body fluids, is the primary way of preventing transmission of an infection in the workplace.
In general, when there is a potential for biological hazards, employers must have an occupational exposure control plan that describes the employee protection measures that are being used. The plan must:
The occupational exposure control plan will identify methods used to reduce the potential for exposure to blood borne pathogens following the same hierarchy as for other hazards: engineering controls, administrative controls, and personal protective equipment (PPE).
Signs and labels serve a crucial role in preventing occupational exposure to hazardous materials. For example, OSHA's Hazard Communication Standard requires that hazardous chemical containers have GHS labels that use a standardized system to identify the chemical, the hazards, and protective measures. Containers, including bags, holding hazardous biological material must also be labeled using OSHA specified labels that include the bio-hazard symbol. In the section of the OSHA technical manual that guides OSHA inspections of hospitals, the second item on the inspector's list of what to look for is "adequate marking of hazards and chemical labeling."
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