Chemical Safety in the Laboratory

Stephen K. Hall

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9780873718967
• eBook ISBN: 9781351461382
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Chemistry
• Index: Chemistry

Nothing is more important to an organization than the health and safety of its workers. The managerial effectiveness of any health and safety program is judged on the basis of how well it prevents injuries and ill health. Chemical Safety in the Laboratory provides a proven approach to implementing and maintaining an effective chemical safety program for laboratories in hospital, industrial, and educational settings. Based on 20 years of experience managing and auditing chemical safety programs, the author discusses the OSHA Laboratory Standard and the Chemical Hygiene Plan, provides guidelines for the effective use of personal protective equipment, and details chemical emergency planning and response procedures. He also outlines a 19-step decontamination procedure for emergency responders. Employee chemical exposure monitoring and victim handling procedures are among the other major topics covered in this essential guide.

1 THE OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH ACT

In December 1970, Congress passed and President Richard M. Nixon signed into law the Williams-Steiger Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHAct) of 1970, which became effective on April 28, 1971. The Act applies to all businesses involved in or affecting interstate commerce. Exempt are employees already covered by another federal safety program, such as those under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 and the Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969. In addition, government agencies such as the Department of Defense have directed that the standards established by the OSHAct will be observed.

The OSHAct set up several new organizations. One is the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), a new organization within the Department of Labor, to set safety and health standards for almost all nongovernmental employers. The Department of Labor is responsible for issuing and enforcing occupational safety and health standards. To ensure that the standards are observed, inspections are made by OSHA compliance officers located in offices throughout the country.

Another new organization is the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC), a quasijudicial board composed of three members appointed by the President. Functions of the OSHRC are to hear and review alleged violations and, where warranted, to issue corrective orders and to assess civil penalties.

A third new organization is the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), within the Department of Health and Human Services. NIOSH’s function is to carry out research and educational functions. It is authorized to conduct research on hazardous substances and conditions to permit tolerance levels to be established as parts of the OSHA standards. It develops and recommends to the Secretary of Labor new occupational safety and health standards. To assist in developing these recommendations, NIOSH may issue regulations requiring employers to measure, record, and report on employees’ exposures to substances or physical agents that endanger health and safety. NIOSH publishes annually lists of known toxic substances and the levels at which toxic effects will occur. At the request of an employer or employees’ representative, NIOSH will determine whether any substance found in the place of employment has potential hazardous effects. In addition, NIOSH will conduct and publish studies on industrial processes, substances, and stresses for their potential effects on personnel.

OBJECTIVES OF THE OSHACT

The fundamental objective of the OSHAct is to ensure “so far as possible every working man and woman in the nation safe and healthful working conditions and to preserve our human resources.” This fundamental objective can be achieved by:

(1)Encouraging employers and employees in their efforts to reduce the number of occupational safety and health hazards at their places of employment, and to stimulate employers and employees to institute new and to perfect existing programs for providing safe and healthful working conditions;

(2)Providing that employers and employees have separate but dependent responsibilities and rights with respect to achieving safe and healthful working conditions;

(3)Authorizing the Secretary of Labor to set mandatory occupational safety and health standards applicable to businesses affecting interstate commerce, and by creating an Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission for carrying out adjudicatory functions under the Act;

(4)Building upon advances already made through employer and employee initiative for providing safe and healthful working conditions;

(5)Providing for research in the field of occupational safety and health, including the psychological factors involved, and by developing innovative methods, techniques, and approaches for dealing with occupational safety and health problems;

(6)Exploring ways to discover latent diseases, establishing causal connections between diseases and work in environmental conditions, and conducting other research relating to health problems, in recognition of the fact that occupational health standards present problems often different from those involved in occupational safety;

(7)Providing medical criteria which will assure, insofar as practicable, that no employee will suffer diminished health, functional capacity, or life expectancy as a result of his work experience;

(8)Providing for training programs to increase the number and competence of personnel engaged in the field of occupational safety and health;

(9)Providing for the development and promulgation of occupational safety and health standards;

(10)Providing an effective enforcement program which shall include a prohibition against giving advance notice of any inspection and sanctions for any individual violating this prohibition;

(11)Encouraging the states to assume the fullest responsibilities for the administration and enforcement of their occupational safety and health laws by providing grants to the states to assist in identifying their needs and responsibilities in the area of occupational safety and health, to develop plans in accordance with the provisions of the OSHAct, to improve the administration and enforcement of state occupational safety and health laws, and to conduct experimental and demonstration projects in connection therewith;

(12)Providing for appropriate reporting procedures with respect to occupational safety and health, which procedures will help achieve the objectives of the OSHAct and accurately describe the nature of the occupational safety and health problems; and

(13)Encouraging joint labor-management efforts to reduce injuries and disease arising out of employment.

OSHA INSPECTIONS

To ensure compliance with the OSHA standards, inspections are made without prior notice by OSHA compliance officers. Compliance officers have the right to enter the premises of any business, to take air, water, or other environmental samples; interview employees; and inspect all records related to safety and health. In general, the following priorities are used in making inspections:

(1)An inspection will follow any accidental death or mishap in which five or more workers are injured. Under the law, such an accident must be reported within 48 hr of its occurrence.

(2)A plant will be inspected if a report is received of an imminent hazard, and to ascertain that the imminent hazard reported has been eliminated.

(3)Industries that are considered especially hazardous will be inspected at frequencies and times established by the cognizant OSHA office. The especially hazardous production industries are those with high injury frequency rates, e.g., longshoring, lumber, wood, roofing, sheet metal, meat, meat products, mobile homes and various transportation equipment.

(4)Other industries, also on schedules to be established by OSHA offices.

VIOLATIONS AND PENALTIES

If the OSHA compliance officer finds a violation of the OSHA standard, he or she must issue a citation to the employer within 6 months of any violation. The citation will indicate a reasonable time for elimination or abatement of the hazard. Four types of citations for violations of OSHA standards are possible:

(1)Imminent Danger: any condition or practice such that a danger exists which could reasonably be expected to cause death or serious physical harm immediately or before correction can be made through normal procedures.

(2)Serious Violation: any condition, practice means, methods, operation, or process which has a substantial probability of causing deaths or serious physical harm.

(3)Nonserious Violation: where an incident or occupational illness resulting from violation of a standard would probably not cause death or serious physical harm (no permanent injury).

(4)De Minimis: (no penalty): where violation of standard has no immediate or direct relationship to safety or health.

Plant housekeeping is one area graded by the OSHA compliance officer. In addition to constituting a hazard that could contribute to falls, fires, and other accidents, housekeeping is indicative of the general management of the plant, especially in its attitude toward safety. Poor housekeeping will be immediately apparent to any compliance officer entering a plant and will undoubtedly influence his or her attitude toward the plant manager’s concerns for employee health and safety.

The compliance officer who finds conditions of imminent danger can only request, not demand, shutdown of an operation. If the employer or his representative refuses to shut down the operation, the compliance officer can, and will, notify the employees of the imminent hazard, and the Department of Labor may seek court authority to shut down the operation.

For any violation, the inspecting compliance officer can propose a penalty of up to $1000 per day until the situation is corrected. For serious violations, such penalties are mandatory. Such penalties may also be imposed where nonserious violations are cited.

Willful or repeated violations may each be assessed a civil penalty of up to $10,000. If the death of an employee is due to a willful violation, the employer, if convicted in court, may be punished by a fine of not more than $70,000, imprisonment of not more than 6 months, or both. If death of an employee occurs after the employer has been once convicted of a violation, the penalty can be doubled.

At the conclusion of an inspection, the compliance officer conducts an interview with management and presents his or her findings. The compliance officer then reports the findings to the Director, who decides whether a citation, with an abatement date, is to be issued, and the penalty to be assessed. A citation is sent by registered mail to the employer.

Any employer cited for violation can contest any citation, proposed penalty, or time stipulated to eliminate or abate a hazard. A judge from the OSHRC will review the case, decide whether a violation has occurred, and if so, the penalty. The judge’s decision may be reviewed by the three-member Commission, and it may be appealed to the U.S. Appeals Court. Employees or their representatives may also object, within 15 days after a citation is issued, to the time stipulated for eliminating or abating a violation.

Where elimination or abatement of a cited hazard cannot be accomplished within the allotted time, an extension may be granted if the employer shows that he has made a good faith effort to do so, but that factors beyond the employer’s control are causing the delay.

OSHA STANDARDS

The OSHAct empowers the Secretary of Labor to set safety and health standards. Until April 1973 the Secretary could stipulate unilaterally that any recognized consensus standard, produced by an existing organization that undertakes such tasks, would be observed. There was no need for any formal hearings to determine whether such standards should be issued. After that date hearings must be held to include new or revised standards, those that are not recognized consensus standards, or those that were not already existing federal standards.

The first version of the OSHA standards was a hastily prepared assembly of standards previously issued by technical associations to meet the April 1973 cutoff date. Consensus standards included those by the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH), American National Standards Institute (ANSI), National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), and others. These standards had been prepared as recommended guidelines to be observed as deemed advisable by industry. In certain instances they became legally mandatory when a political jurisdiction, such as a state or city, requires observance of such provisions, e.g., the ASME Code for Pressure Vessels. Many of these also became economically mandatory where insurance companies raised rates prohibitively due to nonobservance. Other standards, such as those previously issued under the Walsh-Healey Act, had already become mandatory. The Walsh-Healey Act requirements were imposed on any company which rec...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Preface
• About the Author
• Disclaimer
• Table of Contents
• List of Tables
• Chapter 1 The Occupational Safety and Health Act
• Chapter 2 The OSHA Laboratory Standard
• Chapter 3 Employer’s Responsibilities
• Chapter 4 The Chemical Hygiene Plan
• Chapter 5 General Safety Practices
• Chapter 6 Personal Protective Equipment
• Chapter 7 Identification of Hazardous Chemicals
• Chapter 8 Chemical Handling Procedures
• Chapter 9 Storage of Chemicals
• Chapter 10 Laboratory Ventilation
• Chapter 11 Employee Chemical Exposure Monitoring
• Chapter 12 Medical Examination and Consultation
• Chapter 13 Chemical Emergency Planning
• Chapter 14 Chemical Emergency Response Procedure
• Chapter 15 Decontamination of Emergency Responders
• Chapter 16 Victim Handling Procedures
• Chapter 17 Laboratory Waste Management
• Chapter 18 Employee Training
• Chapter 19 Record Keeping
• Bibliography
• Appendix A. States with OSHA-Approved Plans
• Appendix B. The OSHA Laboratory Standard
• Appendix C. EPA Levels of Protection
• Appendix D. Vapor Suppression Foams
• Appendix E. EPA-Listed RCRA Hazardous Wastes
• Appendix F. Incompatible Chemicals in Storage and in Reactions
• Index