Personal sampling requirements

Does the SAHP require that the employees who are likely to have the highest exposure to hazardous substanees and health hazards are monitored by using personal sampling frequently enough to adequately eharaeterize employee exposures [OSHA Referenee... 

Today s personalized medicine requires analysis of a large number of biological samples in a short period on the day they are collected from patients so that a proper informed dose adjustment can be made before subsequent dosing. The high-throughput analytical procedures developed to meet this demand are reviewed in subsequent sections covering immunoassays, HPLC alone and combined with tandem mass spectrometry detection (HPLC-MS/MS), and ultra-performance liquid chromatography with MS/MS detection (UPLC-MS/MS). 

Personal air sampling (required by OSHA) is designed to measure an individual worker s exposure to fibers while the worker is conducting tasks that may disturb ACM. The sampling device is worn by the worker and positioned so that it samples air in the worker s breathing zone. 

The sorbent tube is placed near the worker s breathing zone, and the outlet of the tube is attached to a calibrated personal sampling pump. A known volume of air is drawn through the tube. Alternatively, several passive charcoal badges are currently commercially available. No sampling pump is required for these devices,... 

For the evaluation of the acceptabihty of an air sample (percentage of dissatisfied persons), several methods have been apphed. Besides the yes/no classification (acceptable or not acceptable), the continuous acceptabihty scale [32] is used. The middle of the scale is indicated as the transition between just acceptable and just not acceptable. With both methods, however, large panels (up to 100 persons, depending on the statistical relevance required) of untrained persons are required. 

Using effective controls, controlled conditions and well-controlled tests constitutes an important part of all investigational experimentation. It is an often neglected subject. Equally such experimentation should be supported by adequate statistical control. Take a situation where a wadded and a wadless (no liner) closure are to be placed on an HDPE bottle and then stored over a 6 month period in a cycling cabinet which cycles between 15°C 50% RH and 37°C 90% RH each 24 h. Question— devise a statisically controlled experiment to check any torque changes, indicating the number of samples required. Personally I would suggest the use of an induction sealed closure as the experimentation could be complex and costly for the information achieved. 

A. Air sampling required by 1926.651 (g) does not have to be performed in all trenches over four feet deep. This paragraph addresses excavations over four feet deep where oxygen deficiency or other hazardous atmosphere exists or could reasonably be expected to exisf, such as in excavations in landfill areas or in areas where hazardous substances are stored nearby. It is the responsibility of a competent person to determine if air monitoring needs to be performed before employees enter each excavation. 

With the exception of monitoring under paragraph (d)(3), where monitoring is required under this section, the employer shall collect personal samples representative of a full shift including at least one sample for each job classification in each work area either for each shift or for the shift with the highest exposure level. See Table 4.3 for an example of OSHA s lead hazard control assumed exposures. Full shift personal samples shall be representative of the monitored employee s regular, daily exposure to lead. 

Therefore, in situations where the contract between the renovation firm and the property owner or another regulation, such as HUD s Lead-Safe Housing Rule or a state regulation, requires dust clearance sampling by a properly qualified person and requires the certified renovator or a worker under the direction of the certified renovator to reclean until clearance is achieved. 

Because of these factors, the worker-exposure monitoring job is never done. It must be done on a periodic basis over the course of the entire job. Such is the case with asbestos and lead abatement work where continuous monitoring is required. Two major categories of samples collected to draw an exposure profile are normally analyzed by laboratories and are called area and personal. In general, direct-reading instruments are used to obtain area or background samples, and personal samples are obtained with laboratory-based analysis methods. 

Intrusiveness. Workers are likely to alter their behavior, consciously or unconsciously, when they are observed. To the extent that a worker s exposure is related to the worker s actions, this change can distort the representativeness of the evaluation. Measurement methods which require the close presence of the person collecting the sample are more likely to influence the result than samples collected with unobtmsive devices worn by the worker. 

Airborne particulates include dust, fume and aerosols. Many such particles are invisible to the naked eye under normal lighting but are rendered visible, by reflection, when illuminated with a strong beam of light. This is the Tyndall effect and use of a dust lamp provides a simple technique for the rapid assessment of whether a dust is present, its flow pattern, leak sources, the effects of ventilation, etc. More sophisticated approaches are needed for quantitative data. Whether personal, spot or static sampling is adopted will depend upon the nature of the information required. 

The contractor at Site H had established area and personnel sampling consistent with HAZWOPER requirements. A photo ionization detector (PID) and a real-time aerosol monitor (RAM) were used on a daily basis to screen for potentially hazardous levels of contaminants. On a weekly basis, personal air samples were collected and submitted for laboratory analysis. PPE requirements, however, were often not based on this data because the oversight agency had established inflexible minimum PPE requirements. The audit team found many of the PPE requirements on Site H to be excessive in light of site monitoring data and hazard determinations. 

Assuming that the only substance that reacts with dichromate in blood plasma is alcohol, is a person legally drunk if 38.94 mL of 0.0723 M potassium dichromate is required to titrate a 50.0-g sample of blood plasma ... 

Plastics will continue to be required in space applications from rockets to vehicles for landing on other planets. The space structures, reentry vehicles, and equipment such as antennas, sensors, and an astronaut s personal communication equipment that must operate outside the confines of a spaceship will encounter bizarre environments. Temperature extremes, thermal stresses, micrometeorites, and solar radiation are sample conditions that are being encountered successfully that include the use of plastics. 

NOTE Sampling steam and condensate lines in large process plants such as smelters, pulp and paper plants, steel mills, and the like is potentially dangerous. Site rules must be followed and the use of proper safety equipment employed (safety equipment includes helmet, gloves, goggles, and occasionally a respirator). Under certain operating conditions, confined space permits and tag-out or lock-out rules may be necessary and a minimum of two persons required before work begins. 

Recent Uses of Solid-Surface Luminescence Analysis in Environmental Analysis. Vo-Dinh and coworkers have shown very effectively how solid-surface luminescence techniques can be used for environmentally important samples (17-22). RTF has been used for the screening of ambient air particulate samples (17,18). In addition, RTF has been employed in conjunction with a ranking index to characterize polynuclear aromatic pollutants in environmental samples (19). A unique application of RTF reported recently is a personal dosimeter badge based on molecular diffusion and direct detection by RTF of polynuclear aromatic pollutants (20). The dosimeter is a pen-size device that does not require sample extraction prior to analysis. 

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