Chapter 3: Formaldehyde Monitoring Update, 2nd Edition 2 CE Hours
By: Taylor Walding
Course Approval Number: 374294
Learning outcomes After completing this course, the learner will be able to: Recognize the employer and employee roles under this standard. Apply safe and up-to-date formaldehyde monitoring procedures. Course overview This course takes laws from the website of United States government’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s formaldehyde standards and informs and updates the reader of what checks and balances are in place
Explain medical information and reporting of formaldehyde workplace exposures. Identify level tiers of safe exposures to formaldehydes and their limits.
to keep laborers who require exposure to formaldehyde as part of their vocation safe, healthy, and protected from negligent overexposure or misuse of the helpful yet toxic colorless liquid preservative.
INTRODUCTION
increased exposure occurs. It’s important for anyone with any potential to work near formaldehyde to know what it does, how it acts in combination with other chemical and organic substances, what to do in various cases of contact, and who to seek assistance from when those instances arise. Following are OSHA’s latest formaldehyde standards, guidelines for its higher concentrated cousin formalin, and just how to keep these chemicals monitored consistently at a safe level to work alongside (OSHA, 2013a, 2013b, 2013c).
Life, especially in the death-care industry, needs a good sense of humor. However, no matter the perspective, formaldehyde overexposure is no laughing matter. Having suffered from asthma since I was a child, my sensitive lungs turned against me when I, as an embalmer, experienced formaldehyde overexposure at the workplace. Thankfully, OSHA has practices in place to protect workers, immunocompromised like me or of typical wellness, from health hazards, even when required equipment faults and
Occupational Safety and Health Standard: Formaldehyde 1910.1048(a) Scope and application—
1910.1048(c) Permissible Exposure Limit (PEL)— 1910.1048(c)(1)
This standard applies to all occupational exposures to formaldehyde, i.e., from formaldehyde gas, its solutions, and materials that release formaldehyde. 1910.1048(b) Definitions— For purposes of this standard, the following definitions shall apply: ● Action level means a concentration of 0.5 part formaldehyde per million parts of air (0.5 ppm) calculated as an eight (8) hour time-weighted average (TWA) concentration. ● Assistant Secretary means the Assistant Secretary of Labor for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, U.S. Department of Labor, or designee. ● Authorized Person means any person required by work duties to be present in regulated areas, or authorized to do so by the employer, by this section, or by the OSH Act of 1970. ● Director means the Director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, or designee. ● Emergency is any occurrence, such as, but not limited to, equipment failure, rupture of containers, or failure of control equipment that results in an uncontrolled release of a significant amount of formaldehyde. ● Employee exposure means the exposure to airborne formaldehyde which would occur without corrections for protection provided by any respirator that is in use. ● Formaldehyde means the chemical substance, HCHO, Chemical Abstracts Service Registry No. 50-00-0.
TWA: The employer shall assure that no employee is exposed to an airborne concentration of formaldehyde which exceeds 0.75 parts formaldehyde per million parts of air (0.75 ppm) as an 8-hour TWA. 1910.1048(c)(2) Short Term Exposure Limit (STEL): The employer shall assure that no employee is exposed to an airborne concentration of formaldehyde which exceeds two parts formaldehyde per million parts of air (2 ppm) as a 15-minute STEL. 1910.1048(d) Exposure monitoring— 1910.1048(d)(1) General. 1910.1048(d)(1)(i) Each employer who has a workplace covered by this standard shall monitor employees to determine their exposure to formaldehyde. 1910.1048(d)(1)(ii) Exception. Where the employer documents, using objective data, that the presence of formaldehyde or formaldehyde-releasing products in the workplace cannot result in airborne concentrations of formaldehyde that would cause any employee to be exposed at or above the action level or the STEL under foreseeable conditions of use, the employer will not be required to measure employee exposure to formaldehyde.
EliteLearning.com/Funeral
Book Code: FFL1225
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