Document VDgExVK9Le8wJYNb26ay0mwj

1966 National Safety Congress recently arc there on the market typewriter bility of losing his balance and becoming cleaners branded by obscure trade names but entangled with the chipper. bearing in fine print on the label the re Ventilation is used universally in all plants. assuring note, "contains methyl chloroform." It may l>c just natural building infiltration; Other commonly known substitutions that have protected an unknown number of plant people from occupational disease arc use of artificial abrasives like silicon carbide (Carborundum) or aluminum oxide (Aloxitc) for natural sandstone; use of steel grit, glass beads and other harmless materials instead of sand in abrasive blasting units; the change from lead as a paint pigment it may be general, with fans bringing in great quantities of air and distributing it through ductwork; it may be by ah oc casional or a myriad of roof exhaust fans; or it may be by local exhaust hoods to prevent dust, gas, mist, or fumes from spreading around the work area. The com mon uses of ventilation arc to heat in winter, cool in summer, and to remove air-borne to harmless titanium dioxide, zinc chromate, contaminants from the work room. iron oxide, and other such compounds. Local exhaust systems for contaminant While protection for the employee from harmful materials can usually be provided in some way or other, we're far better off to get rid of the harmful material itself. Then, if a breakdown in the control system (such as the exhaust) or an unexpected change in the operation occurs, people in the area will not be endangered. Both safety director and plant nurse should know what materials arc used in the plant, how danger ous they arc, and should always keep in mind the happy possibility of substituting a less dangerous substance. To gain this knowledge, as well as to keep in touch with their people, not only the safety engineer but the nurse also should make frequent control consist of four main parts: enclo sures, semi-enclosures, or flared shaped hoods, usually of tailor-made sheet metal, which should be placed close to the point where the contaminant is released to room air; ducts, usually round, through which an air stream flows at a high enough velocity to transport the contaminant, if it is dust, with out its settling and so plugging up the pipe; an air cleaner to remove the contaminant (such as a cloth filter with shaker for dust, a scrubber or other device for gas, and electrostatic precipitator for fume) to keep from discharging the foreign matter to the great outdoors; and finally, a motor-driven cxluiusl fan to move the air into the hoods. plant tours. Design of these systems is rather intricate. Some potentially dangerous operations can be isolated from the people nearby, which solves the exposure problem. The isolation can be by a physical barrier (such as an acoustic box to contain noise from a whin ing blower or a screaming rip saw), or by time (such as providing semi-automatic equipment so a person doesn't have to stay near the noisy machine constantly), or by distance (remote controls). An example of this is a new wood room in a paper mill. This is where 8-foot logs enter a huge tumbling drum which debarks them, causing rumble and claps like a thunderstorm. They then go to a chipper which disintegrates a log into 1-inch pieces in a couple of sec onds with a brutal noise. The operator used ' to stand right above this chipper. Now he's 100 feet away in a sound deadened room where he manipulates controls in accordance A nurse or safety director would not be called on to undertake this task. But it is a fact not well understood either by a plant manager, or interestingly enough, even by the engineer involved, that many, maybe most, top-rank plant engineers, maintenance men, and otherwise highly qualified heating and ventilating firms, are not skillful at lay ing out local dust exhaust systems. All too much money has gone down tire drain, with disappointing accomplishment, because an en gineer or tinsmith unused to industrial needs tackled a local exhaust system. The reason? He hasn't grasped a few essential funda mentals. Some of these might seem elementary when pointed out. They arc things that a safety director might easily put to use. I mention some here as tips in lire dcsigu of good exhaust systems: with what he sees on a couple of closcd- 1. An exhaust hood has astonishingly ' circuit TV screens. Not only is noise now little ability to "reach out" and suck in the no problem, but he is spared the tragic possi dust from its point of release. Because we