FEATURE WORKPLACE SAFETY PROTECT YOUR STAFF - EXTRACT HARMFUL DUST AND FUMES
Welders, and other workers in the manufacturing industry, are suffering from cancer, pneumonia and other lung related illnesses due to lack of protection from poisonous fumes and gases. Statistics have been released by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) who are working on an initiative with BOHS (The Chartered Society for Worker health Protection) called ‘Breathe Freely’ to raise awareness of the deadly risks present to workers in the manufacturing industry. Out of the 190,000 workers who carry out welding activities each year, 150 of them die from cancer caused by welding. Other statistics released are equally concerning such as 2,200 annual deaths from cancer caused by past work in manufacturing industries and 4,000 people suffering from breathing and lung problems caused or made worse by their work in manufacturing. It is alarming to still see statistics that prove
business owners are not doing enough to ensure its workforce is protected from the processes that are undertaken in order to produce the goods they sell. Hefty fines do not seem to be enough of a deterrent to make companies take action to protect workers. In support of the campaign, Impact Technical Services is offering a free site assessment to all companies within the manufacturing industry, in
which the working environment will be assessed and suggestions made to include or improve local exhaust ventilation (LEV). The company’s solutions suit a wide range of budgets and scenarios, to ensure that LEV solutions are available to businesses of all sizes and turnover. Tony Bosworth, operations director of Impact
Technical Services, comments: “We visit many different workplaces, all over the UK, and less than half of them have adequate extraction systems in place to protect their staff from the harmful dust or fumes created by the processes in which they work. We have seen some systems
REGULATION AND CLEANING PROCESSES
Cleaning processes benefit from regular review. For many companies re-evaluating their precision cleaning products and processes, regulation is probably the driving force. The main types of cleaning
solvents in use over the past couple of decades are: methylene
chloride, perchloroethylene, trichlororethlyene (Trike), hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) based solvents, n-propyl bromide (nPB), aqueous (water based), flammable solvents (such as Isoparaffins), hydro-fluoro ethers (HFEs) and HFO based solvents. Aqueous and HFEs and HFOs are not affected by any current or anticipated legislation. The main regulations affecting use of solvents for precision cleaning are:
the Solvents Emissions Directive (SED), the F-Gas Regulation and REACH regulations. Under the EU Regulatory status Annex XIV listing Commission Regulation (EU) No 348/2013 of 17 April 2013, Trike’s sunset date took place on 21 April 2016 and it is now banned with the exemption of authorised applications linked to specific companies. Other legislation already in place affects use of other traditional solvents, including nPB and HFCs. For instance, the SED places restrictions on the ‘loss of solvent to
atmosphere’, especially solvents that are classified as having ‘carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic to reproduction’ (CMR) potential. nPB is classed as a CMR under the SED. The directive requires substitution in the fastest timescale possible and usage must comply with the emission limit of 2mg/m3 In the UK, the SED is administered by the Health and Safety Executive,
.
which has not placed an outright ban on CMR-classed solvents but instead applies ‘Risk Phases’ defined in the SED as its guide. If less than one tonne of CMR solvents are used by a company per annum, then that solvent is exempt from SED regulation. However, it can be hard to predict volume of use in advance so alternatives need to be considered.
that have not been installed properly therefore not working effectively, systems that haven’t been tested in years, and even workplaces that have no extraction in place whatsoever creating an extremely dangerous working environment. Simple measures can be taken to ensure staff are protected and such measures cost a lot less than the fines employers could be issued with. “This is why we see it as so important to offer businesses a free site assessment. We will look at their current methods of dust and fume extraction and assess whether they are effective and efficient enough to actually protect workers. We will also make suggestions on different methods of effective extraction to suit all budgets, to ensure staff are protected in all cases.” Impact’s solutions such as Downdraught Benches, Wide Pivotal Extraction Hoods and Extraction Arms all provide extraction of harmful dusts and fumes. Impact also provide all dust and fume extraction services such as LEV testing, system design, installation and maintenance, air quality testing, fan servicing, and much more. The HSE make random unannounced visits to
businesses to ensure adequate protection is in place. Do not get caught.
Impact Technical Services
www.impacttechnicalservices.co.uk
The aim of the F-gas Regulation is to reduce the emission of
fluorinated greenhouse gases, including HFCs used in precision cleaning applications. The updated F-gas Regulation prohibits the sale of some HFCs, including HFC-23 from the beginning of 2015, plus a phasing down of all other HFCs to 79 per cent of 2009-2012 levels by 2030. The REACH regulations replaced various directives with a single system of
EU regulation for the registration, evaluation, authorisation and restriction of chemicals. This has had a direct impact on nPB: in July 2015, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) recommended the inclusion of substances, including nPB, in Annex XIV to REACH, and in September 2016, nPB was included on the REACH draft authorisation list. REACH had already deemed nPB as a Substance of Very High Concern (SVHC). For nPB and other substances inclusion in Annex XIV to REACH has
now been formalised. This means that an EU based user needs to apply for special authorisation to continue using nPB. The deadline to apply for authorisation is 4 January 2019. Without authorisation, the product can no longer be used after the sunset date of 4 July 2020. nPB also falls under the spotlight of the American Conference of
Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH). While this is US-based and not enforceable in the UK or mainland Europe, it has implications on the industry worldwide. New threshold limit value - time weighted average exposure guidelines for nPB were recently published, with a reduction from 10 parts per million (ppm) to 0.1ppm. Due to worker exposures potentially exceeding this new threshold, nPB may no longer be a viable solution for use in some industry applications. The ACGIH has also reclassified nPB as a “Confirmed Animal Carcinogenic with Unknown Relevance to Humans”. Companies need to consider the future implications of their cleaning processes. Choosing, testing and installing a cleaning solution can take time and in addition to the fluid, may mean a change of equipment or processes. It makes sense to choose a solution that will not just be fit for purpose today, but for many years to come.
3M
www.3M.co.uk/Novec
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AUTUMN 2017 | INDUSTRIAL COMPLIANCE
/ INDUSTRIALCOMPLIANCE
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