Hazard reduction involves any activities used to decrease any damage to life, property, and the environment. According to Russell J (2009), a company's management is responsible for any activities that threaten the health of their employ. This project is about Acme International manufacturing shop which contains two welding stations and a paint room. The report provides ways of mitigating hazards that have been recognized through a risk assessment. The Risk assessment offers sound engineering controls including local exhaust ventilation as an effective mitigate for the identified hazards in both the paint room and welding stations. To safeguard the employees from exposure to harmful welding fumes such as hexavalent chromium, local exhaust ventilation can be used as a source of welding fumes. Also, while working in the paint room, local exhaust ventilation can be used to prevent hazards.
If a company cannot avoid generating foreign materials that are found in the air, the general ventilation and local exhaust ventilation approaches can be used without resorting to personal protection, Mroszczyk J (2012). After the completion of the risk assessment and the hazards are precisely known, ventilation methods can be applied with an orderly use of engineering controls. The project also provides a detailed approach for prevention of dangers through design in case Acme International was to decide on making a new shop for manufacturing.
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Currently, Acme international does not have local exhaustion ventilation in both the welding station and the paint room. This leads to the welders being exposed to high concentrations of hexavalent chromium which is present in their breathing zones. According to the industrial hygienist who comes to inspect the vicinity, the employees are not adequately protected from the harmful fumes by the use of ceiling fans alone. The exposure levels of hexavalent chromium, benzene, and ethylbenzene which the employees are exposed to are much higher than the OSHA permissible exposure limits also at the ACGIH threshold limit value. The exposures are not healthy for the employees, and therefore, Acme International will need engineering controls to be put in place in the working areas.
The poor air quality that exists at Acme International is due to the limited ventilation. Using FMEA (failure mode and effect analysis) methodology to inspect the area, there is a probability of even a higher concentration of hexavalent chromium that would exist in the area. In such a situation where the ceiling fan in the welding station malfunctioned the welding fumes would increase thus polluting the air even more than before. The increased exposure to hexavalent chromium thereof would cause more harm to the employees.
Hexavalent chromium compounds according to National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) are occupational carcinogens. The carcinogen is associated with cancer of the lungs, nasal, and sinus. The probability of the ceiling fan motor failing is quite high, and this would be hazardous in that, the welders at Acme International are already exposed to higher concentration of hexavalent chromium, and an increase of the fumes which is likely to happen would only be more hazardous. Therefore, Acme International should take haste in installing local exhaust ventilation with a point collector in their welding stations. Using adjustable ventilation hood that has a flexible ductwork will enable the amount of airflow to remove the fumes from welding arc over the length of the weld being formed. In this way, the fumes are being pulled away from the welder's breathing zones.
A cyclone collector is a type of mechanical separator which filters the air before it is released back to the environment. A pointer that has been designed to capture velocity at a speed of 500-2000 feet per minute should be used for exhaustion. But even after installation of LEV system does not help to control the exposure from hexavalent chromium, the welders would need to use other means of respiratory protection.
There is also the issue of arc flash from the welding operations that could affect the employees at the welding stations. It could also affect the other employees who are passing by to the paint room. The UV radiation burns from the welder's flash are harmful to the welder's eyes and the surrounding tissue of the eye. Passersby and other welders do not look away from the flash; they will be affected if they are not wearing protective welding hoods. Welding curtains could be used around the welding areas to protect other employees from being exposed to the flashlight, but the curtains should not block the ventilation to prevent overexposure to harmful fumes. The welders should wear welding helmets that have lenses for MIG welding on stainless steel. At Acme International, the situations of someone being exposed to the welder's flash is more likely to cause severe consequences when one is utilizing the risk matrix.
In the paint room, similar problems regarding ventilation can also be experienced. As the welding stations, only a ceiling fan is used for ventilation. Hazardous materials would exist in the air in case the ceiling fan malfunctioned if one uses the FEMA technique for analysis. According to the sampling results from the hygienist, there already exists high levels of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene and, acetone. If the fan malfunction the harmful air exposure would increase this would be more hazardous to the employees in the paint room. Benzene especially is more harmful as it causes difficulty in thinking and even the hearts functioning changes. Benzene can cause a decrease in blood cell formation and is also regarded as a carcinogenic chemical and therefore over long periods can cause severe damage. The use of PPE is required due to the presence of highly hazardous material, especially in the paint area, failure to which a FEMA with a high or medium scenario will be identified.
A failure with the ceiling fan would cause a high amount of high concentration of flammable vapors accumulating in the area, because of the flammable solvents in the paint room. The fumes will ignite if the room lacks the right electrical classification, i.e., Class I Division II. Dividing the paint room and the welding area would decrease the probabilities of the vapors that are getting into the welding area, and igniting because of the sparks caused by the welding.
Utilizing booth or canopy installation in the paint room it is recommended as the use of a local exhaust ventilation. The velocity of 50 and 100 feet per minute to capture the vapor is what the ventilation. The designer of the ventilation also has to account for the pressure drops consequences in the system. The pressure drop can be caused by sudden direction change or change in the size of the dust cross-section. To move vapor to an emission controlled area a fan is required. An axial flow fan will be needed if the vent line is direct without long runs otherwise a centrifuge fan would be needed in the event where there is static pressure. Since the vapor will be combustible a spark resistant fan is advised for installation. You would need to learn the volume of the room (length by width by height), to determine the physical size of the area to be ventilated then divide the volume by the number of minutes per air change for the type of place. The answer would be the CFM needed to ventilate a room as stated in Cincinnati Fan, (2014).
An incinerator would be used to burn the flammable vapors of the ventilations. To safeguard the vent system a lower explosive detector would be recommended for the vent line with interchanges that would dilute the system with more oxygen. Regenerative thermal oxidizer would be best for the paint room. According to Anguil, (2015), The RTO destroyed harmful gases in the system and reconstructed to thermal energy.
The three fundamentals of prevention using a design are to identify the hazard, perform risk assessment and apply concepts of engineering hierarchy.
In conclusion, ACME international is working under horrible conditions with their employees exposed to harmful and carcinogenic air in the different areas of operation. ACME international would need to evaluate and construct a new workshop that applies the concepts of engineering and hierarchy control and designing and installing the right ventilation for the company at the new location at which is more cost friendly than overhauling the operation.
References
Anguil. (2015, February). Regenerative Thermal Oxidizer (RTO). Retrieved October 18, 2015, from http://www.anguil.com/oxidizers/regenerative-thermal-oxidizer-rto/
Cincinnati Fan. (2014). Industrial Ventilation Fan. Retrieved October 18, 2015, from https://www.cincinnatifan.com/industrial-ventilation-fans.htm
Mroszczyk, J. W. (Ed.). (2012). Safety engineering (4th ed.) . Des Plaines, IL: American Society
of Safety Engineers.
Russell, J.P. (2012). The ASQ Auditing Handbook , Fourth Edition.
