Federal Worker Protection Standard

Federal Worker Protection Standard, 40 CFR Part 170, covers pesticides... 

USEPA (1992). Worker Protection Standard (Final Rule), Federal Register, 57(163), 38102-38166, August 21, Washington, DC, USA. 

Code of Federal Regulations, 40 CFR Part 170, Worker Protection Standard for Agricultural Pesticides, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,... 

Over the years, Oregon has adopted a number of major safety and health standards that, while deemed as effective as comparable federal standards, also have significant differences, ( egon has also adopted a number of state-initiated rules for which there are no federal counterparts, including Forest Activity Standards, Agriculture Standards, Firefighter Standards, and Pesticide Worker Protection Standards. 

The OSHA standards generally cover private sector workers and public sector employees in states that have an OSHA state plan. Public sector employees, or certain school employees, who are not already subject to a state OSHA plan are covered by the USEPA Worker Protection Rule (Federal Register February 25, 1987 40 CFR 763, Subpart G, Abatement Projects Worker Protection, Final Rule). 

On April 6, 1994, OSHA published its final revisions to the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) standard in the Federal Register, Vol. 59, No. 66. With the implementation date of July 5, 1994, the regulation, applicable to the general industry, represented major changes in the selection and use of PPE. OSHA believes that through compliance with the PPE standard, safety statistics that track worker safety will improve. These improvements will add up to 712,000 lost workdays and 95,000 recordable cases. 

Analytical chemistry is a critical component of worker safety, re-entry, and other related studies intended to assess the risk to humans during and subsequent to pesticide applications. The analytical aspect takes on added significance when such studies are intended for submission to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and/or other regulatory authorities and are thus required to be conducted according to the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) Standards, or their equivalent. This presentation will address test, control, and reference substance characterization, use-dilution (tank mix) verification, and specimen (exposure matrix sample) analyses from the perspective of GLP Standards requirements. 

The local, state, and federal regulations dealing with workers and environmental protection are not the only ones the Project Manager has to deal with. The design and construction of all plants have to conform also with a number of codes and standards that regulate the design, fabrication, and erection of all the physical components of the project. 

The US Congress passed the Occupational Safety and Health Act in 1970. This act created the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in the federal Department of Labor to establish and enforce safety standards for the workplace. OSHA standards are called permissible exposure limits (PELs). Many PELs have been adopted from ACGIH TLVs. TLVs are generally defined as air concentrations of chemicals that most workers can be exposed to for an 8 h workday, 40 h week for a working lifetime without suffering adverse effects. TLVs are not guaranteed as safe exposure levels for the entire population. Employers may also institute voluntary exposure limits either because an OSHA standard has not been promulgated for a xenobiotic of concern or because they want to apply an exposure limit that is more protective than either the PEL or the TLV. 

Good processes are safe for the operators, the environment, and the consumer. OSHA has proposed exposure limits for many compounds, and worker safety considerations will only become more stringent with time. An out-of-control, runaway reaction can lead to fatal consequences and to spills and emissions that are injurious to the environment. Environmental emissions standards are posed and regulated by agencies at the federal (EPA), state, and local levels. Green chemistry is becoming more important. The consumer is protected by the effective process controls filed with the FDA, so that the purity and impurity levels of the API are held within specified ranges. 

Hazardous waste sites provide an easy opportunity for individuals to be exposed to some of the most dangerous poisons known. Federal standards (29CFR1910) require protection for workers involved in hazardous waste remediation. Protection must be... 

The federal government has developed regulatory standards and guidelines to protect workers from the potential health effects of other coal tar products in air. OSHA has set a Permissible Exposure Limit (PEL) of 0.2 milligrams of coal tar pitch volatiles per cubic meter of air (0.2 mg/m3) in workroom air to protect workers during an 8-hour shift. 

A search of federally funded research in progress (FEDRIP 2000) revealed several studies that are discussed in this section. Creosote is currently subject to a Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) registration standard and data call-in by EPA. In addition, the Creosote Council II is planning to conduct a research program that includes testing for worker exposure and protection. 

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