Document 0gg8o3pkzeJBRGoOJjyKwQ54x

AR226-2031 ZIPFEL 11/05/97 11:39 AM To: CC: Subject: BROWNAL. SZAKATOK CHAPMA6A, OFFENBJL ttem found on recent employee C-8 exposure discussions Amy, X have attached the action items from the 9/16 C-8 sampling meeting. This letter deals with item Ho. 8, which speaks about exposure from a drain line from the float tank and with item tlo,2 which deals with high levels of airborne C-8 in the wax room. Item Ho. 8 The issue ie not correctly stated by the words in the referenced report. The iaaue is "How do we keep our employees from being sprayed with C-8 containing dispersion" The occupational health personnel feel we need to prevent our people from being splashed or otherwise exposed to ptfe dispersions. This ie easy to audit because it is dispersion for the most part which turns our employees clothing white. I discussed this situation with the dryer operators today. They tell me that their highest exposure to dispersion comes from two sources. 1) Draining the tto. 1,2,364 fine powder blend tanks. This operation occurs 2-3 times per week and involves a high exposure of our personnel to raw dispersion. 2) Draining the coagulator filters. Exposure mostly comes from the draining due to the splashing from the drain valve. But it also comes from the changing and cleaning of the filter baskets themselves. This job apparently is complicated by the pluggage of the drain line from the diked area to the supernate tank supply pumps (or whatever the sump pumps on the south end of the dispersion area are that pump out that sump to the supernate tank). This operation occurs once per day. There are other sources I am sure, especially in diapersions. Xtem Ho. 2 This items deals with us finding C-8 levels above the AEL in our recent round of sampling. Additional sampling was requested by A.Hailey, but I don't think they have been taken yet. ( t will send this note to Becky S.Dines for follow-up by her on the additional samples). The results are very high and beg the question as to proper breathing protection. EID086157 After a one hours inspection of these areas it is my opinion that there is not an easy fix here. We have a lot of history to overcome and changes will be costly. I am sure that we will need to alter our PKe requirements which need to be very carefully considered if we are expecting good compliance. I would like to discuss these items with you in more detail. I would like us to consider creating a'team that will examine these issues from a production, maintenance and technology sides and come up with a program that meets all of OUK- production and business objectives. This team could be called the "Keeping it Blue" team. Our objective should be that we don't have people walking around in clothing that has obviously been exposed to high levels of dispersion. The solution of having throw away clothing is not the answer. The path forward for the wax room is to get firm C-8 in air data, and an understanding of why the levels are so high and then determine the correct solution. This should not need a team to resolve. Just one engineer. Please call me after you have thought these issues over a little. Roger. EID086158 -0061663.txt if One of the recommended action points from your August visit to Was hington Works was to determine the respirator cartridge we use for protectio n from C-8 is actually effective. The GMA-H cartridge was found by Haskell Lab to offer good protect ion against C-8, as described in their report 664-80. Regards, Tony Page 1 E1D086159