100 pounds of Hg

largest mercury spill in 20 years the fact that this isn't simply the largest is scarier. Reading the idiocy posted by idiots reading the papers is even scarier. "He said he was unaware of any damage to workers' health." It's amazing what you can be unaware of, simply by not being told. No one could possibly know within 24 hours whether or not the workers' health is impaired. Still ... I had a job once where I was explicitly told to "take your time getting back here", so that the corporate president could go on TV and say "we don't have that information yet". Of course not, I had it. So, I'm not really impressed anymore with "I'm unaware of ...." He added he did not know which company employed the supervisors who gave his employees their instructions. -- this is just a prime example of failure to stay on top of your employees' safety. If anyone is giving my employees directions involving their health, I damn well want to know who they are. I might now know what was said/done, but I would at least know who ran my safety program. ...notified the state's Office of Emergency Services about a spill of one pint of mercury - equal to 14 pounds. About three weeks later, the company amended its report to 90 pounds. ... reported the [second] spill to the state as six pounds and about a week later amended that amount to 90 pounds do you think someone might have checked into this, after the first amendment? Changing it to a larger amount doesn't surprise me - once you have a better idea of what happened, I would expect the number to increase. But from 14 to 90? That's not just a little blip, that's a 500% increase. Under laws effective last year, any company failing to notify the center promptly about a reportable spill could face a fine of up to $32,500 a day, EPA officials said. come on ... does ANYONE actually think the EPA will even try to fine these people? He added that the law now requires a professional survey assuring asbestos has been removed from a site, but "there is no similar requirement to have a professional survey for mercury and other hazardous materials." I might understand this, in a general sort of way. Tearing down the Gustavus Adolphus building on 16th & Lake really wouldn't warrant one's attention for hazardous materials. But a manufacturing site, which is known to have used hazardous chemicals in large quantities? Anyone who has ever dealt with older companies and especially older facilities in disrepair knows that it is almost a sure-fire guarantee to find 'unexpected' items. (I could tell you horror stories about cleaning a deep freezer which had, at one time, belonged to an infectious disease laboratory.) Hazardous materials assessment should precede demolition or major construction activities at any facility. That could be as simple as "looked around, it was an office, no asbestos, no radon, check" - or in the case of an old pesticide plant, like the one just west of me in the Philips Neighborhood: "um, old pesticide manufacturing plant, no one owns it anymore, it's a Brownfield, there's arsenic all over the neighborhood ...".

questions for noise monitoring

As I progressed with this project, I realized that I should ask more questions. Sure, these are patently obvious, and are probably mentioned in any text on the topic. But, hey, this is why the first time doing something is educational. And of course, some of these I realized ought to have been asked after getting data I didn't want. Do you move to other tasks in the day? If so, find out which ones & how long they are at each station. How long do you stay at this work station? If the answer is less than a full shift, find out where else they are (& what they're doing). Is this a normal day for you? Do you normally run this (gizmo) more? less? Is production running faster or slower? Are you doing more tasks than usual? How long have you been doing this task, i.e., years, months, weeks You should establish how much experience the worker has with this task, which might be different than their seniority/time-in-grade might indicate. 30 years with the company might mean she's been doing this task for 6 months. Are you working overtime today? Often? Will you need to set the measuring instruments to accommodate a longer measurement? When you do calculations, you'll need to know what their normal exposure is, if today is different. Who else does this task or works at this station? Do you have someone who just helps out occasionally? This might be different than the answer you get from the supervisor. You're more interested in finding the perhaps unofficial or unknown "helpers", to make sure the helpers get included in your surveillance program. Is this task done every day? If this isn't a routine task, find out how often it is done. You might manage to catch someone doing a quarterly or annual task. And, if you miss the infrequent/irregular jobs, find out when they happen so that you can catch it next time.* As with anything else, have a pre-printed sheet with all of these questions. If you expect to have standard answers, put the standard answer with the question, so that you can easily circle it, rather than write it. E.g.: How long have you been doing this task? less than 6 months 1 year 5 years more than 10 years How long are you at this work station? 8 hours 4 hours 2 hours other ________ The easier it is for you to gather information, the more relaxed the employees will be. If it's quick and painless, it won't interrupt their work (as much). * Especially with irregular jobs, I find it much better to be able to approach the Supervisor and ask for a very specific thing: "Please contact me the next time you shut down Machine 5 for cleaning?" If you already know what you want (because you got the information from the worker), the manager will be either a) impressed that you know what you want and hopefully b) more likely to do it, because she knows what you want. This will also benefit your relationship with the worker: Asking them for information indicates your respect for their professional competence.

Porcine ebola

One doesn't normally think of infection control with slaughterhouses. And, if one does, it's more likely to be hoof & mouth or BSE, not ebola.

Jan 27, 2009 (CIDRAP News) – Health officials in the Philippines recently announced that a worker who had contact with sick pigs tested positive for antibodies to the Ebola Reston virus, a pathogen that was discovered about a month ago for the first time in pigs.

Eric Tayag, head of the National Epidemiology Centre, said the case represent the first known pig-to-human Ebola Reston virus transmission, If you haven't run across it, the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy ( CIDRAP) has a great website. This is, of course, one of those morbidly interesting sources. As we commented, after each of our environmental health courses: "oh my god, I never want to breathe, eat, or drink again, 'cause I'm gonna die!" The Journal of Emerging Infectious Diseases is also a great read Pro-Med Mail is an on-line public-input disease tracking system.

Herpes exposure control

New drug may [great science word] prevent transmission of herpes virus. great for infectious disease prevention ... i'd be curious as to whether the majority of herpes cases are due to casual sex vs. long-term partner sex. An estimated one in five Americans have genital herpes, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, while 100 million have HSV-1. okay, class - which is bigger? 1 in 5 or 100 million? I doubt they actually expect the average person reading this to know the current population. Which is, according to the U.S. Census Bureau 306 million ∴ 1 in 3 have HSV-1 Why not write: An estimated one in five americans have genital herpes,..., while one in three have HSV-1. ~or~ An estimated 60 million Americans have genital herpes,..., while 100 million have HSV-1. Perhaps they (reasonably) fear Jane Doe will think 1 in 3 is smaller than 1 in 5? Maybe they don't really want me to know how many people have HSV-2? Or perhaps they just don't really want me to know anything, such as: An estimated 1 in five Americans have genital herpes,..., while the number with HSV-1 is about one and a half times higher.

War on Science

Slate.com declared the War on Science to be over. Meanwhile the Columbia Journalism Review reported: CNN, the Cable News Network, announced yesterday that it will cut its entire science, technology, and environment news staff, including Miles O'Brien, its chief technology and environment correspondent, as well as six executive producers. Mediabistro’s TVNewser broke the story. “We want to integrate environmental, science and technology reporting into the general editorial structure rather than have a stand alone unit,” ... "integrate" generally doesn't mean "eliminate and leave the rest hanging". Let's just eliminate the advertising department, Joe, and let the Marketing and Sales fellows cover it as an integrated unit, but only after we fire all of the advertising guys. "integrate" should be 'reorganize and then cut jobs'. The War on Science will be over when I'm long dead and gone, if ever. The ever-increasing number of parents who reject modern medicine in toto ... ... who seek to embrace 'natural' or 'homeopathic' or 'alternative' medicine while blissfully living encapsulated from disease in a society built on what they reject ... ... who refuse to acknowledge the potential for "science" to be able to explain better than the Bible ... ... Those who refuse to acknolwedge the potential for "science" to support religion** ... ... all of this simply reinforces an undeclared and often unacknowledged War on Science. ** Of the number of people I know who are devout scientists, a significant proprotion of them are concurrently devout theists.

Not really unprecedented

Outbreaks of measles in U.K. mirrors problems we've had here. About 10 or so years ago, several universities started requiring incoming students to be vaccinated for measles.* This was at a point where the ACIP changed its recommendations for MMR vaccines (measles, mumps, and rubella/German measles). The traditional vaccination practices, they were discovering, were inadequate for long-term immunity. Fair enough; hey, this is why CDC has a reportable disease requirement. I realized that I am old enough to fall into that period. I figured I'd get vaccinated again. That's another story. I did. Not so for thousands of people who have decided to abrogate their personal & social responsibility. Yes, this is one point upon which I am both conversant and very strongly opinionated. Sure, I'm often opinionated; I try to be knowledgeable about it; I try to see other points of view. I've seen them here and they're irrational and scientifically unsubstantiated. Don't get me going on the whole thimerosal 'controversy' or 'conspiracy'. Maybe I'll make a different post on that, using the concepts of Risk Assessment to explain my opinion; it will take more time than I have right now to do this well and accurately. While I realize measles is far more common than mumps and rubella, and is therefore more immediate in people's minds, it is also the least risky of the 3 to long-term health. [I don't recall where I read this, so if it's not correct, please let me know.] It is a cogent example of ignoring a greater risk due to the fact that it's less likely to happen, and thus less likely for people to believe it has anything to do with them. Eventually the herd immunity will fall below the level necessary to effectively control these diseases. At which point, we're going to have an large outbreak, if not an epidemic. And, at which point, all of these "don't vaccinate my child; I'm the parent and know better" parents are going to line up and demand to know why the government hasn't done anything to prevent this. Failure to vaccinate your child or yourself against the major communicable vaccine-preventable diseases is inexcusable. Before you think I'm an ideologue on the point, there are other vaccine-preventable diseases for which I also consider less important. It's not an absolute yes/no question. But, it is not only the potential for disease, but also the potential consequences of communicating the disease. Polio - well, this is one where I understand a reluctance to vaccinate; however, considering the extent of global travel, it is no longer a valid argument that "we don't have it here, it's only over there [i.e., in some 3rd world country]." I understand, but do not agree with their argument. An interesting article in Minnesota Parent magazine addresses puts forth the problem in personal terms. (The stats are Minnesota-based.) There are also vaccines for rabies, anthrax, and monkey pox. I'm not about to get in line to have any of these, much less ask for them for my kids. [Although, as a point of disclosure, I have actually been vaccinated for the first two, but that was occupationally related and justified based upon a much higher risk of exposure than I have now.] Hey, cool - "Warning, some of these photos are quite graphic" notice for medical photos of these diseases (measles, mumps, rubella, polio (still & video), tetanus, diphtheria (personal note: these are the grossest) & pertussis . I bet if these were more widely available, it might change some people's choice about whether to get vaccinated, considering the current American obsession with body images. I realize there is legally an option to refuse to be vaccinated.** This in the past was generally used by some religious sects which object to any 'modern' medicine. We need to seriously and objectively assess the effectiveness and appropriateness of our current policies. The objectivity needs to be placed on all sides of the argument. * Currently, the Academic Health Center at the University of Minnesota (schools of medicine, nursing, dentistry, pharmacology, veterinary medicine and public health) require vaccination for HepB, DTP, MMR and annual TB tests. What a pain trying to get all the documentation for this, when school started! ** Non Medical Exemptions to School Immunization Requirements, secular trends and association of state policy with pertussis incidence, Omer, Pan, Halsey, et al., J. Am. Med. Assoc., 2006;296:1757-1763 as pdf and .htm ~~ concludes that the looser exemption rules are, the higher the incidence of disease. Other information: Advisory Council of Immunization Practices has an extensive list of vaccine-preventable diseases and individual information on both the disease and vaccine. ACIP is part of the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC). There is a new adult schedule posted here in .pdf and .htm versions. Summary of Notifiable Diseases (several years worth) The photos linked above are on the CDC website, but are from the Public Health Image Library.

Phthalates - EPA assessment?

Oy! yet again, one is confronted with material from academic courses, and realizes 'hey, this actually was useful!" EPA considering risk assessment for phthalates

Phthalates have been used in toys, cosmetics, personal-care products, food packaging, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and cleaning and building materials. They have been found in products such as teethers and pacifiers that babies put in their mouths.

President George W. Bush signed a law this year banning three types of phthalates in children's toys and child care items, except for minute amounts, while temporarily banning three others pending further study. - well, even an idiot can get it right once in a while -

The same six phthalates have been banned in European toys for nearly a decade.

Risk Communication

The Godfather Guru of Risk Communication, Peter Sandman, has quite a few columns on his website, www.psandman.com, including this one, Simplification Made Simple, published in the Sept. 2008 issue of The Synergist. The website has the unabridged version.

Zamboni Inhalation Risks

Zamboni: originally developed by Frank Zamboni in '49, registered as an international trademark, it is nonetheless used as a generic colloquialism for ice resurfacing vehicles in ice hockey arenas. Think of a giant ride-on lawn mower that melts the ice and then squeegees it smooth, using an internal combustion engine for power both to move & melt. They can slice your fingers off. [well, duh]. They can scare the bejeepers out of small children by leaving a bloody trail of crimson transmission fluid on the ice. They can become runaway weapons of vehicular mayhem if controlled by a vodka-swilling driver. When will society wise up to the inherent dangers of the seemingly innocent Zamboni? From the CBC comes yet another story of Zamboni baloney: Public health officials in Quebec City are alerting people who attended a weekend hockey tournament in Portneuf to be vigilant about any breathing problems, after a Zamboni used at the event emitted toxic fumes. Seven people were sent to hospital with chest pains and breathing problems after playing hockey at the St. Ubalde arena rink on Sunday. Two of them are still in intensive care, while another is suffering from a build-up of liquid in the lungs. Health officials suspect the patients inhaled nitrogen-oxide emitted by a Zamboni machine with an improperly calibrated motor, operating in an arena that wasn't very well ventilated. IAQ: Electric surfacers: apparently they leave the ice harder & players happier Problems in hockey rinks (esp. PM2.5): What's more, 14 per cent also tested higher than 100,000 particles of pollution per cubic centimetre, roughly the equivalent of the air quality that might be experienced standing next to Toronto's Highway 401, the busiest road in the country. --- parts per cubic centimeter? I realize the US (and industrial hygienists are even worse than most American scientists) is pretty oblivious to the whole concept of S.I. units or 'metric'. But why not ppm? or even per cubic meter (like us)? Guarding: Chop off kid's fingers Powered Industrial Trucks: ZUI: zamboni under the influence Totally unrelated to health, but really cool photos: looks like the zamboni ran over a penguin:

stupidity in action

One of my biggest pet peeves is the "modern" belief that vaccinations are no longer necessary as a public health measure. of the measles patients, 33 were from Indiana and 1 resided in Illinois. Patients ranges in age from 9 to 49 (mean age: 12). Measles vaccination was documented for 2 persons, one of whom had received 1 dose, and one who had received 2 doses. [3 doses being the magic 'fully vaccinated' number]. MMWR, vol. 54, no. 42, pp. 1073-1074, 2005, Import-Associated Measles Outbreak Now, I realize that it is possible to get vaccinated and no have immunity (e.g., me). I also realize that vaccination does not provide life-long immunity (e.g., the patients over 40). But really, 31 of these people suffered through a case of the measles (and its attendant infection-related health problems) due to a simple refusal to vaccinate their children.

10 Germiest Jobs

The magic list is supposedly: 1. Teacher/day-care worker 2. Cashier, bank employee 3. Tech support/computer repair 4. Doctor or nurse 5. Lab scientist 6. Police officer 7. Animal control officer 8. Janitor or plumber 9. Sanitation worker (AKA garbage man/woman) 10. Meat packer Hands down, I have absolutely no doubt about #1. Though the article thinks pest control workers climbing around in dark basements after rats should be added to the list. While I would not want the job, it would take one monster basement to be that 'germy'. The only biologically active thing in mine is the cat's litter box. The rats, not the basement, are going to be diseased.

Daylight Savings Time

OHS online has their tip d'jour from the APHA. Dealing with time changes isn't quite something I would normally associate wiht either Public Health or emergency preparedness.

35W follow up

well, the tenuous relationship this has to IH is that I was en route to the AIHA sectional meeting. I get on the highway & head north to the meeting place. I abruptly realize that I'm crossing the new 35W bridge. The memorial pylons (I'm assuming they're part of the memorial?) are really tasteful. This disaster, too, shall pass.

Review of disaster

Living at this end of the Mississippi, the big disaster is the collapse of the I-35W bridge. A report has finally come out addressing the public health / medical issues. There is a summary of the article in journal Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness covers some highlights of "lessons hopefully learned". Unfortunately, I doubt that the infrastructure maintenance long-term financing has been noticed.

Drugs in Drinking Water

Environmental concerns about the quality of source water suddenly include the active ingredients from pharmaceuticals/drugs. And people wonder why they're told they ought not dump old prescriptions in the toilet as a disposal method? Or put them in a landfill? Hmmmm ... where are they supposed to go? One recommendation I saw a couple years ago was to return it to the pharmacy where you bought it, since they will have a disposal program for their own waste. Of course, theirs could be going into a landfill, too - it just won't go in the ordinary trash. oooh, any my home town is on the map with a cute red "tested positive" dot. Yum yum. cholesterol medication nicotine derivative carbamazepine tranquilizers hormones "We plan to put this into some kind of context other than just scientific nomenclature, so folks can get some level of understanding about what it means," said Grubb. Wow ... what a concept. How are they going to explain parts per trillion? really, really small? Apparently since most of this stuff gets into the waters and sewers through human excretion, it might be an added incentive for more patient-specific dosing.

$8.8 million

third largest fine in history $8,777,500 in fines 108 willful violations about combstible dust I'm left wondering if the inspectors simply cited every observation separately, rather than as one blanket "failure to comply with ...." I called OSHA to ask for a copy. I am in awe. Morbid, horrified awe.

Uncomfortable = Unworn

So, (state) OSHA-man shows up on Tuesday for a random, unannounced inspection. My employer (for whom I'm doing an internship) handles this much, much more calmly and professionally than my last place of employment would have. I asked my boss, the Health & Safety manager for the whole plant, if I could tag along for part of the inspection. I've never been involved in one from OSHA before. Ones from CDC, USDA, DoD, state-EPA, yes; strangely enough, not state-OSHA. I'm excited when the answer is yes. So, yesterday afternoon, the boss says, hey, come along. We leave, walk across half of the plant, and meet OSHA-man and some union woman. 30 seconds after I walk into the room, union-woman looks at me and says, "you aren't wearing safety glasses." I am not exaggerating or being flip, when I say, this was the most embarrassing moment of my entire professional career. 7 years of riding people about wearing safety glasses as a safety professional, 6 years of doing it as a chemist. I wanted to crawl into a hole. So, why weren't they on? They're uncomfortable. I just got bifocals, and am getting accustomed to them. The frames got a bit twisted and lost a nose pad. They're down right annoying and are giving me headaches. So, of course, I took them off in my office & put on my regular specs. If it isn't comfortable, people simply won't wear PPE.

Tube Mill in Conneticut

article doesn't specify when the audit happened, printed on 7 aug 2008 58 serious + 5 repeat + 7 other 5 repeat = $40,800 = $8,160 ea. 58 serious = $168,800 = $2,910 ea. 7 other = $2,400 = $323 = ea.

Too Helpful Employees

I've discovered that one must anticipate the bizarre things employees might do, presented with the opportunity. No, I don't mean the zillion truly stupid things like standing on top of 30' ladders, plugging toasters into an area where flammable vapors accumulate, using a forklift to raise another forklift ... No, I mean the things they'll do in a sincere effort to help you. Or a sincere lack of understanding about what you're trying to accomplish. While performing personal noise exposure monitoring, I have discovered the instructions to the employee when applying the dosimeter must include:

1. Don't share. The employee understood that my primary concern was Machine A. She took the meter off, and gave it to the other worker when switching jobs. She wanted to make sure I found out how loud the machine was by keeping the meter with the worker at the machine.
2. It doesn't record things. Despite the fact that the meter does indeed "record" things, it doesn't actually record what you say. My boss advised this as part of the instructions. I would never have thought of it, but apparently others have.
3. "All day" means "until you leave". A couple employees seemed to either not care or not realize what data are recorded. I down-loaded the data & reviewed the dB v. time. I immediately noticed the last hour of data is 0 (i.e., uniformly less than the threshold). I also immediately realized the employee was not accurate in reporting it had been off for "20 minutes".
4. Have a reason for explaining why you picked on her/him. This week's measurements included a worker in an area already identified as in a hearing conservation program. 3 dB exchange rate or not, there's no way it was going to be less than the previously measured 92 dB. Standing next to a bright blue punch press that is at least 10 times larger than the '53 Plymouth I once owned, and was probably built in the same year, the operator asked rather plaintively, "why did you pick me?" My answer: "because I like blue". That wasn't my real rationale. But, it could have been. The reason was actually because he was the only one operating one of the giant beastie

The 300

Well, actually more like 200. Yes, California Occupational Health and Safety Administration - or Cal-OSHA, has about 200 inspectors. For the whole state. After some pregnant teenage migrant worker died of heat, I guess they might do something. Send that 0.5% of the inspectors (i.e., 1) to start checking to see if all of those millions of acres of farmland are actually vaguely complying with OSHA or ACGIH. Nah.