Worker Health and Safety

The Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) covers a broad range of issues relating to worker health and safety, many of which impact the power generation industry (16,17). The Act sets standards designed to protect worker health and safety, particularly in industrial settings. The Occupational Health and Safety Administration, organized under the U.S. Department of Labor, implements and enforces OSHA standards and periodically updates poHcies governing worker health and safety. 

Process Safety A discipline that focuses on the prevention and mitigation of fires, explosions, and accidental chemical releases at process facilities. Excludes classic worker health and safety issues involving working surfaces, ladders, protective equipment, etc. 

The team should also undertake a comparative economic analysis of the P2 options and the existing situation. Where it cannot quantify benefits or changes (e.g., reduction in future liability, worker health and safety costs, etc.), it should make some form of qualitative assessment. 

Wlien it is determined that a speeifie operation falls under the seope of HAZWOPER, a hazard-based approaeh to the implementation of the various elements of the standard should be developed. Wlien HAZWOPER is implemented, OSHA stipulates, If there is overlap or eonfliet with any other standard, the provision more proteetive of worker health and safety should apply. ... 

Hazards Ahead Managing Cleanup Worker Health and Safety at the Nuclear Weapons Complex. U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment. Washington, DC U.S. Government Printing Office, 1993, pp. 3, 13. 

For asbestos removal, the provisions of the OSHA Asbestos Standard 29 CFR 1926.1101 are more protective of worker health and safety than are the more general provisions. The HASP therefore provides that the asbestos removal tasks conducted inside the building will be performed in accordance with the OSHA Asbestos Standard. After the asbestos has been removed, the lead-based paint will be removed. Again, the provisions of the OSHA Standard for lead removal are more protective of worker health and safety than are the more general provisions of 29 CFR 1910.120. Therefore, the removal of the lead-based paint inside the building will be performed in full compliance with the OSHA Lead Standard [1]. 

A properly written HASP should contain worker health and safety program information, guidance, and alternatives. The HASP should quickly answer the following questions What hazards are present and How can we make sure that the tasks will be performed safely The following general guidelines will help to answer these questions ... 

Work zones are often temporary. Many times, onee the work has been eondueted, the zone boundaries ehange and sometimes beeome support zones. Temporary work zones ean be used to eflfeetively manage regulatory seope. Area and personnel exposure monitoring is erueial in order to verify that zoning, eontainments, work praetiees, and proeedures have been designed appropriately and maintain worker health and safety. 

Flazardous waste sites are divided into as many or as few zones as necessary to protect worker health and safety. Work zones are established to prevent the spread of hazardous substances from contaminated to clean areas. Radiological work zones should be considered compatible with hazardous waste work zones, differing only in terminology. Diagrams, sketches, and maps should be used as often as necessary and constantly updated and communicated so that workers can be sure that they are appropriately protected [3]. 

For aetivities beyond those explieitly addressed by FIAZWOPER and for aetivities for whieh more than one regulation is relevant, use the regulation that is more proteetive of worker health and safety. These provisions should be ineorporated into the medieal surveillanee program [1]. 

Special precautions may be needed to protect worker health and safety during operation... 

Special precautions may need to be taken to protect worker health and safety during operation (because of the use of strongly oxidizing chemicals) also concentrated oxidant injection can result in violent subsurface reactions. 

WORKER HEALTH AND SAFETY IN SOLAR THERMAL POWER SYSTEMS. 

Agent Hydrolysis and Treatment of Metal Parts (Steps 8, 10, 13, and 16), 115 Treatment of Hydrolysates and Dunnage by Supercritical Water Oxidation (Steps 11, 12, and 14), 116 Assessment of Integration Issues, 118 Component Integration, 118 Process Operability, 119 Monitoring and Control Strategy, 119 Maintenance Issues, 119 Process Safety, 120 Worker Health and Safety, 121 Public Safety, 121... 

In applying paragraph 1, substitution shall by preference be undertaken, whereby the employer shall avoid the use of a hazardous chemical agent by replacing it with a chemical agent or process which, under its condition of use, is not hazardous or less hazardous to workers health and safety, as the case may be. 

Process Safety Management— A program or activity that involves the application of management principles and analytical techniques to ensure process safety in chemical facilities. The focus is on preventing major accidents rather than dealing with classic worker health and safety issues. 

Because airborne and volatile contaminants can present a significant threat to industrial workers health and safety, identification and quantification of these airbome and volatile contaminants through air/soil monitoring is an essential component of a health and safety program at an industrial site having hazardous substances. The purpose of air and soil monitoring is to identify and quantify airbome and volatile hazardous contaminants in order to determine the level of plant worker s protection needed. 

ACGIH is a member-based organization and community of professionals that advances worker health and safety through education and the development and dissemination of scientific and technical knowledge. ... 

The least tangible of the economic factors that might be considered in evaluating pollution prevention projects are gronped into the third tier of costs. Consumer responses to improved product quality or improved corporate image, employee responses to improved environmental stewardship, and potential improvements in worker health and safety due to pollution prevention could all be considered. Such factors are even more difficult to quantitatively evalnate than tier 1 and tier 2 costs. 

The workplace environment is a significant part of the total ecological system. Since it can be measured, some control over it can be achieved, and improvements in the control technologies in the workplace can be made. Because of the rapidly growing production of complex chemical substances and the use of these in modern living during the past three decades, the existence of chemical hazards in workplaces in relation to worker health and safety has become the subject of great concern. 

By making expectations crystal clear and creating a strong likelihood that those in violation will be punished, Congress and OSHA may have offset the fact that enforcement is so episodic and, therefore, may have secured compliance similar to that that would have been achieved if annual inspections were feasible. However, doing this implies that the particular firms that happen to be inspected may find themselves subject to far more rigorous enforcement of the rules than reasonable protection of worker health and safety requires. 

California Department of Food and Agriculture, Worker Health and Safety Unit, 1220 N Street, Sacramento, CA 95814... 

Probably the most significant worker health and safety development affecting the coloring of plastics is OSHA s Hazard Communication Standard (HCS).This regulation brings many colorants under regulation due to possible chronic effects of exposure. 

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