Canadian Occupational Safety

27 2019 AUGUST/SEPTEMBER "More and more items are made from plastics, which are petroleum based, and when they burn, they give off many different deadly chemicals. So, when furniture, electronics and other materials burn, they release poly- cyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which can cause DNA mutations and are known carcinogens," says John Mavrinac, health and safety chairman with the Ontario Professional Fire Fighters Association in Toronto. Firefighters are also frequently exposed to significant concentra- tions of other harmful materials, he adds. These include carbon mon- oxide, hydrogen cyanide, benzene, aldehydes, sulphur dioxide, hydrogen chloride, particulates and asbestos. Even some of the bunker gear (the firefighter's PPE) can off-gas a hazard- ous chemical when heated because it is treated with a water repellent. Every fire department should have some type of decontamination pro- gram in place, Mavrinac says. The plan should cover the decontamination of the firefighter's person, along with their clothing, equipment and apparatus. It should also reflect the specific area conditions, such as weather, that could affect decontamination procedures. The most effective way to reduce firefighters' exposure to these hazard- ous substances, Mavrinac says, is by doing decontamination at the fire scene and not putting dirty bunker gear, equipment and breathing appa- ratuses into the cabs of fire trucks. "We respond to a call clean, and we should be returning clean or as clean as can be," he says. Every firefighter in a crew must know how to perform decontamina- tion and take part in the procedures. Increasing awareness of the impor- tance of cleaning up at the scene of a fire requires challenging the tradi- tional firefighter culture. "It's the buy-in and culture change that we need to get into people's heads. For the longest time, looking dirty was a way to show pride and say to your fellow firefighters that you battled the beast and won. But now we are learning it is slowly killing us," says Mavrinac. OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY Oil and gas workers can come into contact with a variety of harmful substances. Petroleum gases can also adversely affect the nervous system, liver and kidneys. Some substances, such as gasoline, which contains ben- zene, are carcinogens. Others can cause respiratory problems or harm skin. Generally, workers on oil and gas sites wear flame-proof, anti-static cov- eralls, which protect the skin against flash fires and prevent the worker from creating static sparks that can ignite. The gas evaporates, but any oil needs to be removed. To do that, coveralls should be cleaned in a dedicated industrial washer on-site or by an industrial laundry service. At one workplace, Botham recalls, she and her team were concerned that some of the workers, who would often jump into a truck and drive to another site, might be affected by off-gassing from dirty coveralls in the truck cab. Oil, gas and solvent exposure can cause cognitive impairment. The team conducted a study measuring how much hazardous substance was actu- ally released in a truck cab. In the end, not enough off-gassing was detected to warrant concern. "When we're looking at a risk assessment, particularly in an envi- ronmental impact assessment, the goal is to identify all your potential impacts. And that means all the differ- ent pathways to release contaminants to an uncontrolled atmosphere or off the site," Botham says. In addition to coveralls, gear decon- tamination includes hard hats and gloves. Safety gloves are often dispos- able to prevent secondary exposure during cleaning. "In oil and gas, if you're trying to clean oil off a glove, you use solvents, and the solvents would be more haz- ardous than the oil," she says. Respiratory equipment, often used in the oil and gas industry, must also be cleaned, she adds. Provincial regula- tion on the maintenance and cleaning of equipment should be followed. "You have to be able to clean your respirator. If your respirator isn't clean, instead of protecting you, you could actually get more exposure." If masks are shared, as sometimes is the case when supplied air is used, they need to be thoroughly disinfected to prevent the spreading of germs. Protective gear may also be con- taminated with naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM). Because these are particulates, which can be inhaled, coveralls should be dispos- able and never be taken home. RECYCLING AND EQUIPMENT DECONSTRUCTING Decontamination is a big issue in the electronics recycling industry; taking these products apart can produce lead, mercury and other contaminants. While working in older buildings, too, workers are required to dismantle structures and equipment that contain hazardous substances. "In older buildings, you have asbestos; you might have lead paint or mercury," Dent says. "There's a big concern about how you handle that and protect your workers and make sure they're not transferring that dust or debris into other areas of the build- ing or taking it home." In many cases, workers will wear a Tyvek suit over their coveralls or work clothes so the suits can be dis- posed of every time they come and go from the work area, which has been isolated. Training is required on the proper way to put on and take off the disposable suit. Where workers do not have dis- posable coveralls, as in the electronic recycling industry, they are provided with a special decontamination area, where they take coveralls off. The cov- eralls are laundered after every shift, following proper handling procedures. "So, they wear fresh coveralls for each shift. And they make sure those coveralls aren't drawing that lead dust or mercury or any of the other con- taminants from the recycling area into their clean zone, lunchroom or other areas of the building where adminis- tration might work," Dent says. When deconstructing equipment can produce hazardous dusts, special steps should be taken. For example, Dent recalls, one job required the dis- mantling of a large oven used to dry wood. Because the dryer was covered in lead paint, they needed to reduce the lead dust and vapours released by the welding as much as possible. "We recommended in this scenario that workers have portable ventilation that would trap the dust or vapour they kicked up with the cutting, so they could minimize the release," he says. EMERGENCY REPSONSE Decontamination procedures should be established and included in an organization's emergency response plans. Failing to properly clean con- taminants off workers and equipment can transfer contamination to emer- gency medical personnel, ambulances and hospital emergency departments. All workers who will be involved in an emergency response must receive basic training in decontamination pro- cedures. During an emergency, safety managers need to regularly check on workers responsible for decontamina- tion to ensure they are not fatigued, their protection level is adequate and they have enough supplies. The decontamination equipment will depend on the method of decon- tamination to be used and the type of hazards posed by the emergency. For wet decontamination, response work- ers may need to have supplies of water, hoses, brushes, buckets, cleaning agents, tarps, pools, pumps and tanks to hold the contaminated water. They should have disposal bags for bagging items that are not to be reused, such as inner gloves. For dry decontamina- tion, workers may need brushes to remove gross contamination and bags to collect all spent materials. The decontamination area must be fully set up and operational before anyone enters it. Because different types of emergencies require different procedures, take time to consider the possible scenarios during emergency planning and include these in the response plans. Decontamination areas should be set up far enough away from the emer- gency that decontamination workers are not in danger. If the area is out- doors, it should be located upwind of any hazard. Workers should be trained on emergency decontamination pro- cedures, and procedures should be reviewed regularly to make sure they are up to date. PREVENTING CONTAMINATION Safety managers should look for ways to decrease the need for decontami- nation by reducing or eliminating unnecessary contamination. Adopt remote handling techniques, and have workers wear disposable outer gar- ments. Botham also instructs workers to stay away from highly contaminated areas, to not touch certain things and to bag equipment they need while making openings in the bags at nec- essary points of contact. "Part of this is housekeeping, keep- ing floors clean. If there's an oil drip, you don't want to have that contami- nation where people are going to walk through it and spread it," she says. Since the death of her parents, Daubs has been active in various forms of advocacy work aimed at drawing attention to the effects of industrial diseases and, in particular, of asbestos. She participates in walks and other campaigns to support the total elimi- nation of asbestos. She was surprised to learn how prevalent mesothelioma is and hopes that, by talking about her family's experience, she can raise awareness of the dire health effects of chemicals on both workers and their family members. "No one should pay the price my parents did, and if stories like mine can have an impact, I fully support sharing them to highlight the high personal cost of not protecting work- ers like my father." COS Linda Johnson is a Toronto-based free- lance journalist who has been writing for COS for eight years. Disposable PPE should not be discarded along with regular refuse but should be disposed of as hazardous waste.

• Cover