Pollution workplaces

This chapter provides orientation and an introduction to the subject of air quality. As a part of this introduction, we begin exploring the options for ensuring high quality air in the environment. The focus of this book is on industrial air pollution problems, and hence, the term environment refers to the universal ecosystem that humans live and interact in, as well as the workplace. 

VDI 2262/ Blatt 1, April 1993. Luftbeschaffenheit am Arbeitsplatz, Minderung der Exposition durch luftfremde Stoffe Allgemeine Anforderungen (Workplace Air, Reduction of Exposure to Air Pollutants—General Requirements). 

Higher incomes, higher automobile ownership, and a decline in the population and workplaces that can be sciwcd by mass transit has lead to the declining mass transit demand. Criticism of this shift toward the private automobile comes mainly because the individual driver receives the short-term benefits (privacy, comfort, speed, and convenience), while the negative social consequences (air pollution, traffic jams, and resource depletion) are shared by all. Moreover, if people drove less, and drove more-fuel-efficient vehicles, the positive national goal of less dependence on imported oil would be achieved. 

Pressures to reduce atmospheric pollution, increase safety in the workplace, and save energy have all influenced, paint application methods in... 

Local exhaust ventilation serves to remove a contaminant near its source of emission into the atmosphere of a workplace. A system normally comprises a hood, ducting which conveys exhausted air and contaminants, a fan, equipment for contaminants collection/ removal and a stack for dispersion of decontaminated air. Hoods normally comprise an enclosure, a booth, a captor hood or a receptor hood. Those relying on other than complete enclosure should be as close a practicable to the source of pollution to achieve maximum efficiency. 

EPA has established that hydrogen sulfide is a regulated toxic substance and is a hazardous substance as defined under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act. OSH A has established an acceptable ceiling concentration of 20 parts per million (ppm) for hydrogen sulfide in the workplace, with a maximum level of 50 ppm allowed for 10 minutes maximum duration if no other measurable exposure occurs. NIOSH has set a maximum Recommended Exposure Limit (REL) ceiling value (10 minutes) of 10 ppm. A complete listing of federal and state regulations and recommendations are found in Chapter 7. 

Indoor air pollution in urban centers occurs both at the home and in the workplace. It can often pose a greater threat to human health than outdoor air pollution, both in developed and developing countries of the Asian region. In particular, women and young children from low-income households are often at significant risk from exposure to high concentrations of pollutants from cooking in poorly ventilated houses. 

A new US EPA air pollution ruling will drastically restrict the flexible PU foam industry s use of the auxiliary blowing agent methylene chloride. Methylene chloride has been identified as 98% of the flexible PU foam industry s toxic emissions, and foam facilities have until 7 October 2001 to comply with the new standards. Under a rule from the OSHA, PU foam makers must reduce methylene chloride emissions in the workplace to 25ppm by 10 October 1999. 

On January 1, 1977, the chemical industry truly became a regulated industry. The environmental laws up until that time had covered some chemicals, but had been media oriented. That is — they were concerned about certain chemicals that escaped as emissions or pollutants to various media - the air, our water, contaminated our food or entered the workplace. TSCA changed that direction. It was designed to regulate commerce on chemical substances. TSCA potentially applies to all chemicals manufactured, processed, distributed or used in the U.S. except those chemicals already regulated under certain other federal laws. TSCA affects not only the chemical industry itself, but the many other industries whose products are chemical in nature. This includes most all industrial products. 

Pollution prevention is everyone s responsibility. Preventing pollution may be a new role for production-oriented managers and workers, but their cooperation is crucial. It is the workers themselves who must make pollution prevention succeed in the workplace. 

The compounds profiled in this book include solvents, herbicides, insecticides, fumigants, and other hazardous substances most coimnoidy found in the groundwater and soil environment the organic Priority Pollutants promulgated by the U.S. Enviromnental Protection Agency (U S. EPA) under the Clean Water Act of 1977 [40 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 136, 1977] and compounds most commonly found in the workplace. 

In 1971 the National Academy of Science published a 40-page report, Asbestos The Need for and Feasibility of Air Pollution Controls, (Cooper, 1971) summarizing the illnesses associated with occupational exposure to asbestos and the risks of developing asbestosis, pleural calcifications, and cancers of the pulmonary and gastrointestinal tracts and thoracic cavity. Based on the evidence, the committee recommended control and reduction of dust containing fibrous inorganic materials in the workplace it also discussed nonoccupational exposure to asbestos. 

Because of its exceptional selectivity, sensitivity and speed, IC is particularly suited to applications involving analysis of anions and cations in wastewater, natural waters, source effluents, workplace environments, ambient air and rain water. The analysis of organic as well as inorganic ions can be performed by 1C. Table I is a growing list of ions which have been successfully separated and detected. The principles of IC and selected applications to environmental pollutants are described in this paper. 

When epidemiological studies form the basis for the risk assessment of a single chemical or even complex mixtures, such as various combustion emissions, it may be stated that in those cases the effects of combined action of chemicals have been incorporated. Examples can, for instance, be found in the updated WHO Air Quality guidelines (WHO 2000). Thus, the guideline value for, e.g., ozone was derived from epidemiological studies of persons exposed to ozone as part of the total mixture of chemicals in polluted ambient air. In addition, the risk estimate for exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons was derived from studies on coke-oven workers heavily exposed to benzo[fl]pyrene as a component of a mixture of PAH and possibly many other chemicals at the workplace. Therefore, in some instances the derivation of a tolerable intake for a single compound can be based on studies where the compound was part of a complex chemical mixture. 

The PAH pollution found in these cases consists of an extremely complex mixture of individual PAH compounds. In some cases more than 100 compounds have been identified in the particulate matter from workplace environments (13). This means that, for a complete characterization of the potential hazardous compounds in some of these workplace environments, analytical techniques with very high resolving power, high sensitivity and good reproducibi- lity for quantitative determinations are necessary. At present GC seems to be the best method to meet these requirements (14). 

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