Rank: Forum user 
|
Hi everyone... I understand the concept of WELS and calculating them to ascertain what APF factor is required. What I don't understand is where you get the actual exposure value from. I appreciate an occupational hygienist could be used but for more simple tasks, what do people do. Example... A colleague uses a handsaw cutting wood for X times per day, or they may use an electrical powered saw. For simplicity lets assume there's no LEV and forgetting the hierarchy of control. Purly focusing on RPE.. how would I actually know if the WEL of 5mg/m-3 is actually being exceeded. What I don't want to do is to go OTT with control measures but similarly I don't want to put someone in a position that could put themselves at risk. Hopefully not a stupid question! Edited by user 15 November 2017 19:17:19(UTC)
| Reason: Missing word.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rank: Forum user
|
Hi Ryan, This is not exactly a useful reply to your questionhowever I'm finding exposure monitoring etc. to be a bit of a minefield due to there being so many variables. My feeling is that you should base your controls on the maximum foreseeable exposure which the operative may encounter within a normal shift. However, I would be very interested to hear other persons' thoughts on this.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rank: Super forum user 
|
Hi Ryan, There is no such thing as a stupid question, you may get the odd snipe comment from some, but largely the responses here are helpful (or intended to be so). To that end, as I understand it, you need to have the substance and concentration measured. The result will guide the next response and contol methods. http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/guidance/g409.pdf is the HSE guidance leaflet. What it is will also influence the pf required, mdf is more harmful than pine etc. Hope it helps, S
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rank: Forum user 
|
Hi Ryan,
The only way to know the actual exposure is to carry out a measurement I don’t believe there is a quick and easy way to measure wood dust as we would for vapour (I.e by use of a Draeger detection instrument) you would need to carry out gravimetric analysis to understand the actuals, which as you have rightly mentioned an occupational hygienist could help with.
Hope this helps
Georgia
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rank: Super forum user
|
Further to the previous post: if the hazardous substance is a vapour then it is possible to do a calculation to work out (roughly) how much hazardous substance there is in the atmosphere. It is not possible to do the same for a dust including wood dust as there are too many variables (size of particle, air currents etc). As rule of thumb if you can see dust in the air after using the tool them you can assume there is an appreciable amount of dust in the air and you could take measures to control it but you could interpret this as going “OTT with control measures” but that’s down to you
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rank: Forum user
|
By using dosimeters and environment monitoring devices, you will be able to establish the exposure on each operative.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rank: Forum user
|
Thanks everyone for your replies - much appreciated. It seems to be a bit of a mine field really. I don't know if it's reasonable to do dust sampling/measuring for such limited use. It was more for peace of mind really, it would be good to have something documented to back up reasons why additional control measures are not in place.
So, my next question.... If you were a H&S Manager/Advisor and someone in your workplace is using a handsaw or electrical saw cutting wood occasionally, what would you do?
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rank: Forum user
|
If using an electric saw you can get on tool extaraction and advise the operator to wear a RPE face mask. You can also get mobile LEV systems which can be placed near to the handsaw, but this will only work if the work is done in just one place.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum.
You cannot reply to topics in this forum.
You cannot delete your posts in this forum.
You cannot edit your posts in this forum.
You cannot create polls in this forum.
You cannot vote in polls in this forum.