Industrial Hygiene Services
An independent Certified Industrial Hygienist offering Industrial Hygiene Consulting Services focused on protecting your people: Reduce the risk of injury and illnesses to your workers from chemical and physical hazards including respirable crystalline silica (RCS) dust and other dust exousure, noise exposure, be compliant with OSHA regulations and industry standards, reduce liability and increase productivity.
Services include comprehensive chemical exposure monitoring. Chemical gases, vapors, dusts, mists, or fumes can be harmful through inhalation, ingestion or skin absorption. Chemical hazards include welding fume (including hexavalent chromium), solvents (including benzene), particulates (including respirable crystalline silica dust, wood dust exposure, grain dust), and noise exposure.
Other related services include Ventilation surveys (laboratory hoods and ventilation system performance), Radiation surveys and permit required wipe tests, Indoor Air Quality (mold, asbestos, lead), Safety Data Sheets, and Training. Program evaluations and development for Respiratory Protection, Hazard Communication, Hearing Conservation, and Laboratory Chemical Hygiene Plans. Industrial Hygiene Monitoring results often include recommendations for elimination or reduction of the hazard, such as abatement plans, ventilation controls and personal protective equipment (PPE).
Crystalline Silica - OSHA has published a final rule to reduce the PEL for Respirable Crystalline silica (RCS) to 50 µg/m3 (25 µg/m3 Action Level) for Industry, Maritime and Construction. Enforcement went into effect on September 23, 2017. Representative full-shift initial silica dust monitoring will be required unless conducted in the prior 12 months. As with other standards, monitoring may be discontinued when at least two consecutive measurements taken at least seven days apart are below the action level.
Industrial Hygiene deals with the recognition, evaluation and control of hazards. It has broad application including sampling and analysis, toxicology, ionizing and non-ionizing radiation (uv light, lasers, microwaves), noise & acoustics, indoor air quality, engineering & ventilation controls, respiratory protection, etc. During my early years at the Copolymer Baton Rouge, LA facility, OSHA was promulgating new regulations on acrylonitrile (1980), asbestos (1988) and butadiene (1997). We began with stack sampling, air monitoring and lachrymator complaints and became a Certified Industrial Hygienist in 1990.
Our Industrial Hygiene program included butadiene, styrene, acrylonitrile, hydrazine, ammonia, particulates, asbestos, noise, carbon black and silica. We made ventilation surveys and exposure assessments. We represented Copolymer on IISRP committees evaluating butadiene monitoring and exposures, and also served as Radiation Safety Officer. We designed and implemented a process to safely handle hydrazine and hydrogen peroxide; we produced over 140 batches without a process incident and obtained a process patent.
Consulting expertise includes general Industrial Hygiene, Radiation Protection & annual audits, Safety Data Sheets, HazCom compliance, PPE and ventilation assessments, and radiation surveys. Located in Baton Rouge, LA, I maintain Louisiana asbestos Inspector and Project Designer certifications. For additional information on Safety Data Sheets follow the link to Safety Data Sheets.
A Negative Exposure Assessment (NEA) enables termination of monitoring and isolation, ventilation and respirator requirements according to the asbestos regulations. This is an opportunity for abatement contractors to reduce cost and liability and to improve productivity and competitive position. The competent person certifies that subsequent activities closely resemble the job for a 12-month period. Personnel exposures are geometrically distributed, so it is usually difficult to simply look at the data and say that there is a statistically-reliable high degree of certainty that employees will not be overexposed. A statistically-based negative exposure assessment provides that assurance. Contact me for additional information.
We are required to accumulate Certification Maintenance Points to maintain our CIH; follow this link to free CM point opportunities.