Archive for April, 2016

Monthly Archive

Mon 11 Apr 2016

Another reason to hate N95 respirators

Posted by admin under N95, NIOSH, Respirators
Comments Off on Another reason to hate N95 respirators

I don’t hate all N95 respirators (paper dust masks rated by NIOSH), but they are used wrong very often in construction. And, if you agree, and need another reason to hate them,… guess what??

Now there are FAKE ones! Yes, people have actually copied the crappy dust masks and made even crappier ones.

The fake ones are easy to tell…if you can read the misspelling of NIOSH.  (NIOSH notice here)

kosto-non-approved-mask

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Tue 5 Apr 2016

OSHA silica rule – moving forward

Posted by admin under Air Monitoring, Dust, Exposure, Federal OSHA, OSHA, PEL (Perm Exp Limit), Respirators, Silica, Uncategorized
Comments Off on OSHA silica rule – moving forward

You’ve probably heard the Federal silica proposed-rule has moved in it’s next step towards being a promulgated-rule.

And, you’ve hopefully looked at my prior post about the positives and negatives of the rule. I am usually not in favor of more rules, but as a safety person, my overall opinion is the new rule would be good.

However, there is some opposition (EHS Today Summary Article) from a few industry groups and associations, including ARTBA, NAM, and the ACC in an article to plastic manufacturers. And just recently a lawsuit was filed to stop the rule. They have some good arguments, of which, I think the best are: THERE ARE ALREADY OVEREXPOSURES at the current PEL, and silica related deaths have been in decline for decades.

The ACGIH and NIOSH have been recommending lower airborne limits for years. If you are a construction firm, hopefully you already have (engineering & administrative) controls and respiratory protection in place. If not, the best time to start was yesterday, and the next best time is tomorrow.

cut off saw

 

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