Health Hazards on the field

I thought I should start this thread in hopes that some of you with many years of experience can chip in on any advice you may have in regards to health hazards we should watch out for out in the field. It is sad to say we live in a world where we are trying to do our best in the world of automation, but their are certain health risks involved when you partake a job in the automation field. This is not to say that i depends on others to notify me of any health hazards, infact im a very cautious guy, and i try and do my best to be as safe as i can be, but being young in the field i can only be cautious if i know what environment im entering otherwise you sort have to accept what a client/customer tells you is safe, and in all honesty that may not necessarily be safe.

Recently i was on a service call to get a down system up and running. I arrived at the customer and headed straight to the locations where the control system is located. I entered the room and at first glance i see a considerable amount of white dusty particles in the room, on the walls, tables etc. I looked around for any signs that jump out and tell you to wear a breather or anything of that nature, and their was nothing. The Maintenance tech that also requested the service call hadn't said a word to me about anything and i also did ask the operators for any health hazards but still nothing. So i continue to trouble shoot the system and after some time managed to get it going. Fire put out

Now i happen to see one of my colleagues who has 20 years experience passing by. He immediately tells me to come out and go get a breather. He then described to me that, the room that i was in was filled with silicon particles, which if you think about it are really small crystalline particles. Yes! very tiny silica particles. He also mentioned that once you breath them in and they enter your lungs, you can't really get them out, and according to google can cause side effects such as silicosis which can be disabling and even fatal to long exposure to it. Yes i wasn't in their for that long, but still that is your precious life on the line and all this could have been avoided if the maintenance tech could have mentioned to me the importance of it although he probably has no idea of the significance. I in fact confronted the tech and all he said was with a giggle quote "come on its just dust".

So in conclusion you can never know what dangers are out there unless you know the environment from top to bottom which is never the case when your going to a service call and a system is down, and the health hazards may not surface now but some time in the future when you least expect it. So please share some of your experience you may have so we can at least be better prepared for this.

This is a huge problem for contractors
1. Can they trust the plant to tell them the truth?
2. In the case you cited they did not tell their own employee
- ASSUMING - it really was silica dust and
ASSUMING it was small enough to get into the alveolie of the lung - generally 5 micron or less.
3. IF you squak about it will they have you back to work in their plant?
4. Do you have enough work so that you do NOT have to go back just to survive financially?

Now then based on the little info provided and assuming it was silica and assuming it was respirable I do not think a single day exposure is going to harm you.

Some one is going to blurb but OSHA says blah blah
Well here are the facts
OSHA requires your employer to protect your health
-- NOT another employer whose plant you are working in.
So under OSHA your only recourse is back to YOUR employer.

Silicosis is not a side effect of breathing silica dust - it is a direct effect - the fortunate thing is it takes about 15 or 20 years to get enough to cause permnanent debilitating damage. The damage is called pneumoconiosis other examples are asbestosis, coal miner lung, and brown lung from cotton dust (brusellosis if recall correct).

The "breather"
IF it was silica you must use a respirator approved by NIOSH for exposure to silica. You will not find one at the hardware store. Forget all you know about the paper dust masks - mostly a waste of time and money - you do not get a good seal on the face so they leak.

Yes I am qualified to discuss this after nearly 20 years in Safety and Health.

Dan Bentler

Dan,

Appreciate your insight definitely paying the hardware store a visit.

I assume it is a bit different over here... If I go to a new site I HAVE TO HAVE AN INDUCTION.... by the site. They explain all the hazards and procedures.

If I am not comfortable I have to ask and get answers. If I am not comfortable with those answers I DO NOT go in the environment.

This has caused a few arguments but I am big enough to argue my corner.

Also the law requires suitable warning signs for things like PPE so if I am not equipped or supplied with the correct PPE I don't go in. Before I go to site we ask if there any special PPE required (I always carry hard hat/safety glasses/hi viz vest and coat/ty-vek oversuit/ flame proof overalls/gloves/ear defenders/safety boots).... just to sit and program lol.

We always follow the mantra that we are responsible for our own safety and the safety of the people around us.

Just about all airborne dust is explosive, so stay from dust filled rooms.

Health and Safety legislation is designed to guarantee a paper trail that leads to somebody other than the CEO if you die. If as a by-product you don't die, then it's a bonus. Especially for you.
Blame goes up the chain until the paper trail stays stop, this is why Health and Safety is such a massive industry now, it protects extremely rich people from ever seeing a court room.

Being a "hard man" and breathing fumes or walking on slippery ducting or any other clearly dumb things is for "hard men". Let them be as hard as they like and call you names for being weak.

Your boss will never tell you to cut a safety corner directly, but the inference will be strong. If you decide that was permission to cut that safety corner, that's where the paper trail stops.

Never stick your hand up a pipe to see if the rotary valve is rotating.

Never blow an air line at yourself to see how it feels.

Your greatest risk on any job is the drive to or from site, go figure.

Aaahhh, a good Health & Safety thread...

I'm working on a machine that uses an ultrasonic knife that runs at about 16 kHz, and every time we turn it on the other guys cringe and grab their earmuffs.

I can't hear it at all.

So it turns out that ignoring those "HEARING PROTECTION REQUIRED" signs for 20 years has an upside !

I blamed my hearing problem on being married for so long.

Dan is absolutely correct. Your customer has no responsibility for your safety. It is up to your employer. If you are there on a 1099 then you are the employer.
In my long career I have learned that the better companies have their own people and the cheapskates bring in contractors.
I have left and not gone back and I have left and come back with my own safety equipment. I carry LOTO stuff in with my computer.

Ken that was pretty funny, thanks on the info so far guys

Geospark said:

Aaahhh, a good Health & Safety thread...

Click to expand...

You're doing it wrong:



I had to sign in to see that!

Or probably the worst plant visit ever noted on this site, see Lancie1's Post #30 http://www.plctalk.net/qanda/showthread.php?t=79673&highlight=RMA&page=2 Be careful, be very, very careful on every job or you may live to regret it.

I remember that post by Lancie I actually started that thread. Wish all the best to lancie