Environmental Health and Safety Blog | EHSWire

Daniel Senatus

According to the CDC, poison ivy is a common poisonous plant found throughout the United States. It can be found in forests, swamplands, roadsides, backyards and even in urban environments. That means, wherever you are, poison ivy could be right there!  And, it’s not always easy to spot.  When trying to identify this plant, consider the species, the season and your geographical location as the physical characteristics can vary. Being able to recognize local varieties, especially at a work site, is your key to avoiding exposure.

Poison ivy produces a liquid called urushiol, this is the so called “active ingredient” that causes the itching, blisters and rashes in most people who touch it. Outdoor workers can be exposed to poison ivy in multiple ways:

• Physical contact with the plant (including the roots!)


• Touching tools, equipment or livestock that have been in contact with the plant


• Inhaled aerosolized particles from burning the plant.

Recognition

Your ability to recognize poison ivy is the first step in preventing exposure. Depending upon where you live and the season, the plant can vary widely. It always has three leaves (like many other plants) but the size, shape and coloring may fool you. The following links provide some pictures and other useful information to help you identify the poison ivy lurking in your work place:

• USDA Invasive and Noxious Plants Guide


• Poison Ivy Guide


• USDA Federal and State Noxious Weed Guide


• Great Plains Nature Center

Prevention

When working in areas infested with this wicked plant, personal protective equipment (PPE) like gloves and boots, long sleeve shirts and long pants tucked into boots will help. Be extra careful to not touch the exposed clothing when removing it and wash it in the hottest water possible using copious amounts of soap and water with lots of room to agitate. If you’re not sure – wash it again as you can get a rash from clothing or tools that have the urushiol resin from even years back!

Always wash your skin with plenty of soap and cold water after exposure. (Hot water opens your pores and lets the resin absorb into your skin.) If you can get scrubbing within ten minutes of contact, you may have dodged the poison ivy bullet! And, always clean all tools and equipment that come in contact with the plant with soap, water and a bleach solution to avoid re-exposure.

Follow comprehensive decontamination methods – treat the urushiol resin as a chemical contaminant!

First Aid

How do you know you have poison ivy? Advice from the Mayo Clinic includes

Signs and symptoms of a poison ivy rash include:

• Redness


• Itching


• Swelling


• Blisters

Often, the rash looks like a straight line because of the way the plant brushes against the skin. But if you come into contact with a piece of clothing or pet fur that has urushiol on it, the rash may be more spread out.  The reaction usually develops 12 to 48 hours after exposure and can last up to eight weeks. The severity of the rash is dependent on the amount of urushiol that gets on your skin.

Once you know you’re exposed, wash exposed skin with plenty of soap and cold water to break down and encapsulate the oil. Web MD advises these additional steps:

An alternative is rubbing alcohol, which can dissolve and remove the oils from your skin. If you can remove the oil within 10 minutes, you are unlikely to develop the rash. Symptoms from a mild rash can sometimes be relieved by the following:

• Cool compresses with water or milk


• Calamine - A nonprescription lotion


• Aveeno oatmeal bath - A product you put in the bath to relieve itching

And, of course, if the reaction seems to be severe, is spreading or lasting longer than a few weeks, ask for immediate professional medical attention.

Three leaves? Be cautious!

At Emilcott, we frequently run into job sites with high potential for poison ivy exposure…think about the uncleared, overgrown or unkempt places that surveyers, highway workers, laborers, HazWOPER workers, engineers, inspectors,  construction workers, and landscapers, often find themselves! And don’t think that you’re immune either. My coworker, Paula Kaufmann, CIH, wrote about her overconfidence that she had not been sensitized to urushiol (and thought she was “immune” and her inevitable reaction to repeated exposure. Maybe she should have paid attention to Emilcott’s poison ivy awareness and other outdoor hazards that is a part of many of our health and safety training courses!

Have you had an experience with poison ivy on the job? Were you prepared ahead of time? If not, what happened?

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Topics: Personal Protective Equipment, General Industry H&S, General EHS, Construction H&S, worker safety, Occupational Safety, Exposure, poison ivy, Occupational Training

Paula Kaufmann, CIH

As an occupational and safety professional, I’ve noticed that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has been busy over the last few weeks!  The following is a summary of highlights of interest to Emilcott clients.  Did any of these catch your attention?

Highlight #1: Up-to-Date OSHA Standards

Announcement of a final rule to help keep OSHA standards up-to-date and better enable employers to comply with their regulatory obligation. The concept should allow OSHA to easily remove outdated requirements, streamline and simplify standards without reducing employee protection. The rule is to be published soon in the Federal Register:  OSHA Standards Improvement Project-Phase III final rule.

Benefit to employers:  OSHA estimates that the final rule will result in annual cost savings to employers exceeding $43 million. Now that’s an improvement to cheer about!

In the news release, OSHA stated that there will not be any NEW requirements set by this rule, so employers will be able to comply with it immediately. (However, it seems that there will be modifications...Emilcott will be keeping a lookout for those and post an update below or as a new EHSWire post.)  Here are some examples listed in the news release on this rule:

• Respiratory Protection
  
  
  
  • Aligning air cylinder testing requirements for self-contained breathing apparatuses with U.S. Department of Transportation regulations
  
  
  • Clarifying that the provisions of Appendix D, which contains information for employees using respirators when not required under the standard, are mandatory if the employee chooses to use a respirator.
  
  
  
  


• Sanitation
  
  
  
  • Defining “potable water” to meet the current Environmental Protection Agency
  
  
  
  


• Access to Exposure and Medical Records
  
  
  
  • Deleting a number of requirements for employers to transmit exposure and medical records to NIOSH
  
  
  
  


• Slings
  
  
  
  • Requiring that employers use only slings marked with manufacturers' loading information
  
  
  
  

Highlight #2: OSHA Injury and Illness Logs - Musculoskeletal Disorders (“MSD”)

Reopening the public record on proposed record-keeping rule to add work-related musculoskeletal disorders column.  This keeps popping up!

• In January of  2010, OSHA proposed to revise its Occupational Injury and Illness Recording and Reporting Requirements regulation to restore a column to the OSHA 300 log that employers would have to check if an incident they already have recorded under existing rules is an MSD.  


• On January 25, 2011, OSHA withdrew this proposed revision.


• On May 17, 2011, OSHA reopens the public record on a proposed rule.

Highlight #3: A Survey of Private Sector Employees

Launch of a targeted employer survey to collect information that would improve the development of future rules, compliance assistance and outreach efforts.

• The survey will be sent to private sector employers of all sizes and across all industries under OSHA's jurisdiction. Questions include whether respondents already have a safety management system, whether they perform annual inspections, who manages safety at their establishments and what kinds of hazards they encounter at their facilities. Participation in the survey is voluntary.

Highlight #4: Fall Protection for Residential Construction Workers

Online presentation about fall protection specifically designed for residential construction workers. (This is really great as residential construction crews frequently overlook safety – just look at all the roofers walking around the top of your neighborhood homes!)

• The presentation describes safety methods for preventing injuries and deaths from falls, and explains techniques currently used by employers during various stages of construction. These techniques involve the use of conventional fall protection systems including safety nets, guardrails, and personal fall arrest systems such as body harnesses, lanyards and lifelines.


• The presentation is among a series of guidance materials on OSHA's Residential Fall Protection Web page.

On a personal note, my son is currently volunteering as a roofer on a Habitat for Humanity home construction site … he informs me that he is wearing fall protection and the roof has anchor points! 

So, can you tell that Emilcott is pretty excited about these changes? Instead of putting the onus on employers to become more aware of OSHA, OSHA is streamlining existing rules to match other government agencies (radical!), listening to employers before leaping into new regulations, and looking at alternative messaging techniques to market segments that frequently fall in the cracks.

If you’re interested in what’s happening at OSHA, just take a look at the loooooong list of May press releases…Are there any highlights that you think important to you or American businesses? Any predictions for June?

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Topics: OSHA, General Industry H&S, OSHA Compliance, General EHS, Construction H&S, Compliance, worker safety, reporting, regulation, construction, fall protection, federal register, log, standards, musculoskeletal disorder

Paula Kaufmann, CIH

We have some news on this year’s TSCA IUR Form U submission.  Well, it really isn’t information about the requirements – but we do know that this year’s Form U submission period will not be June 1 to September 30.  It will most likely be later this year.  So, we all can move that task to another segment of the calendar year!

More Information

On May 11, 2011, the EPA issued a Federal Register Notice amending the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Inventory Update Reporting (IUR) regulations by delaying  the June 1 to September 30 submission period for the 2011 Form U reports.  The notice indicated that this delay will not alter the timing of subsequent submission periods (e.g., the submission period from June 1, 2016 to September 30, 2016).  This is an interesting statement as one of the changes included in the proposed IUR Rule is a change of the reporting period cycle to every four (4) years from the current five (5) year cycle.

The EPA is delaying the submission period because the proposed IUR modifications rule has not yet been finalized.  EPA expects to have the final version of the changes to the IUR reporting requirements in the near future. The revised 2011 submission period will be announced with the publication of the final IUR modification rule. 

How does this delay what the EPA rule refers to as a “suspension” affect what needs to be done for the 2010 reporting period?  It seems that the EPA will mandate a new submission period but it is not clear when this will be during 2011.

• We are assuming that the reporting period will remain as the 2010 calendar year. 


• Our next assumption, or guess, is that the Form U submission period will shift to September 1 to December 31, but that will require that the final rule on the IUR modifications be published very soon.

“Food” for Thought…

As recently as March 4, 2011, representatives from the American Petroleum Institute (API) met with the EPA presenting concerns about several aspects of the proposed IUR modifications rule.  One topic the API presented was that when the last set of revisions of the IUR was finalized in 2003 with the next reporting period was extended by one year shifting from 2004 to 2005 with Form U submission in 2006.  During 2004 and 2005, the EPA held many workshops and issued clarification and guidance documents.

And, for now, we wait for the Final Rule and hope that the data we have all collected for the 2010 reporting period will be adequate.  Emilcott's recommendations for what to do while we wait are in my January blog:  “ TSCA IUR Update – What Are the Changes ?”. Essentially, we are advising our clients to proceed with the collection of 2010 inventory data with a threshold of 25,000 lbs.  Here are a couple of items to keep on your radar:

• Be sure your list of manufactured chemicals is complete.  Your list should be based on all chemical processes and imported materials received at the site and not just on the products.


• When calculating individual substance volumes – include imported mixtures with those manufactured at the site aggregating all mixtures containing that substance. 

...And, Emilcott will continue to keep you posted!

What to do if you need help or have questions?

If you need assistance related to the TSCA New Chemicals regulatory requirements or the potential changes due to the Inventory Update Reporting Rule, Emilcott can guide you through the reporting.  We can also help you navigate the maze of reporting a potential Form U violation from prior filing years to the EPA (See http://www.emilcott.com/services/svcenvcompliance.asp). 

As more information becomes available from the EPA regarding the IUR and as testing of the electronic tool begins, Emilcott will keep you up-to-date via EHSWire and our "Regulatory Updates" Newsletter.  

Please give me a call at 1-800-886-3645 or write a comment below if you have any questions or additional information to contribute.

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Topics: Emilcott, health and safety, General EHS, EPA, Compliance, TSCA & R.E.A.C.H., TSCA, Toxic Substance Control Act, reporting, regulation, chemicals

Peter Borbas

As a resident of New Jersey, I have noticed more ticks this spring than I can personally remember in the past few years. Maybe it’s because I have been in the field more (I’m a Professional Land Surveyor) or my dog is covering more acreage in the woods. At work, in the field (literally FIELDS), I am more apt to be using white Tyvek with built-in booties to keep as many ticks off of me as possible; when I am at home I like wearing light colored clothes with my pants tucked into my socks. Folks in my company spray their clothes with Permanone, a Permethrin-based tick repellent and insecticide. This and a lot more information about keeping ticks off of you and inspecting for them is in the CDC’s “ Tick Management Handbook.” What scares me the most are the ticks that I don’t find, not the ones I do find. My life seems like one endless tick check!

Many of you already know my experiences with Lyme disease and have a seen  how Lyme has affected our family. Based on my own experiences, I tell anyone who ever has any symptoms of Lyme to get to a Lyme and vector borne disease specialist immediately.

I recently had a huge surprise; one of my children who has been treated for Lyme three times over twelve years, after spending the past year seeing many different kinds of specialists to figure out what was causing her nausea, fatigue and headaches, was diagnosed with Lyme again (or is it still?) by a Lyme and vector-borne disease specialist. Other types of doctors did not identify the source of her ailments. Once again I have seen the value of spending out of pocket money on expert and specialized doctors when my insurance company and general practitioners has told us something else.

Be aware; know the symptoms of Lyme and co-infectors. Pay attention daily to the health and behaviors of your coworkers, family and friends!  Do not let money be a barrier to getting to the appropriate diagnosis and treatment

For more information on protecting yourself from Lyme disease and understanding the symptoms to get the correct treatment, I recommend the following resources (shown here in alphabetical order):

• American Lyme Disease Foundation


• Columbia University Medical Center - The Lyme and Tick-borne Diseases Research Center


• IGeneX, Inc. - A specialty immunology laboratory and research facility


• International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society


• Lyme Disease Association, Inc


• Lyme Disease Foundation


• Lyme Disease Help


• Turn the Corner Foundation

About Our Guest Blogger: Peter Borbas is a Professional Land Surveyor and project planner; he is the Owner/President of Borbas Surveying and Mapping, LLC

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Topics: General Industry H&S, General EHS, Construction H&S, H&S Training

by Bruce Groves

Through my membership with the New Jersey American Industrial Hygiene Association (NJ-AIHA), I had the opportunity to make a presentation at the New Jersey Clean Air Council’s (NJCAC) annual meeting on April 13 ^th.   This particular meeting sounded intriguing as it would be focusing on a topic of great interest to me – a technical dialogue on how to measure and identify the effect of air pollution (and other environmental stressors) on the cumulative health issues of the public. The meeting aimed to bring professionals from varying disciplines to discuss technical approaches, academic research and general opinions on how to reduce this pollution and therefore improve the health of the affected populations.  

The meeting lasted a full day with contributing presentations from a dozen or so professionals. There were 15 NJCAC Board members at the meeting and 50+ attendees comprised of 11 presenters, NJDEP staff, and members of the public.  As a presenter, we were each given about 20 minutes to make our points regarding specific urban populations that have inordinately higher exposure to air contaminants as compared to people living and working in “cleaner” urban, suburban and rural areas of the state.  The majority of the presentations concluded that there are neighborhoods where pollution levels are chronically and significantly high.  Presented evidence also linked higher incidences of illnesses and disease with these cumulative exposures to contaminants and other environmental (and social) stressors.  

Bob Martin, the NJDEP Commissioner, gave an introductory presentation outlining current and future regulatory initiatives for reducing air pollution in New Jersey. One plan is to ban older diesel equipment in areas that do not have effective emission controls.  Joe Suchecki, a representative of the Engine Manufacturers Association, correspondingly, presented convincing evidence that new diesel technology does not create air pollution problems.  The trick now is to get all the older diesel equipment off all the roads and construction sites replaced by either new equipment or equipment retrofitted to control air emissions.

Ana Baptista, PhD, gave an excellent presentation on the high levels of pollution in the Newark Ironbound district and the resulting links to disease in the residential population resulting from cumulative exposure to these contaminants.  Dr. Robert Laumbach gave a similar presentation about future research that he is leading to test people who live in the Ironbound in an attempt to prove this link of air pollution exposure to increased illness and disease.

My own presentation discussed Emilcott’s experience measuring local air pollution (particulates and vapors) and other environmental parameters (noise, wind speed and direction) using the Greenlight Environmental Monitoring System which collects, in real-time, data for particulates (at multiple particle size ranges) and vapors, coupled with data of wind speed and direction, to identify emission sources and measure their impact on local air pollution.  We have found that “what is measured, improves”, and by using this sophisticated and integrated air monitoring approach, identified emission sources can be controlled to make immediate and sustainable improvements to the local air quality. 

Overall, excellent information was presented, reinforcing the fact that the air quality in much of New Jersey is not very good and, in certain areas (usually in disadvantaged urban neighborhoods), it is extremely poor.    And, residents living in zones with the worst air pollution also show some link to increased disease and illness.     

I left the NJCAC annual meeting knowing that solid academic work was underway to prove that high levels of air pollution causes disease.  What was missing was evidence that effective, short-term actions are being taken, to reduce the levels of pollution and contaminant exposure in these areas to improve overall health for the resident population.

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Topics: indoor air quality, health and safety, General EHS, Air Monitoring, Air Sampling, environmental air monitoring, Public Safety, cumuluative health, perimeter air monitoring, air pollution

by Paula Kaufmann

On April 15, OSHA announced revisions to the Outreach Training Programs as part of a continuous improvement program. Effective immediately, these new requirements apply to both the trainers and training materials.  The Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA, Dr. David Michaels, explained the announcement by stating, " These revisions will serve to tighten the program controls to ensure the best training is provided to the worker participants. Trainer reliability will be enhanced and classes will focus more on fulfilling students' needs for safety and health training."

Here is a snapshot of the revisions:

• The "program guidelines" are now defined as “program requirements" (translation: must be done).


• Separate procedures are provided for each of the Outreach Training Programs, Construction, General Industry, Maritime, and Disaster Site Worker. 


• A trainer Code of Conduct and a Statement of Compliance requires each trainer to verify that the training they conduct will be in accordance with the Outreach Training Program requirements and procedures.


• Classroom size is now limited to a maximum of 40 students.


• Only translators with safety and health experience can be used.


• Videos can be used for only 25 percent of the training period.


• OSHA course completion cards must be provided directly to the students within 90 days of class completion.


• All construction classes are required to include four hours on Focus Four Hazards.


• All 30-hour classes must include two hours on Managing Safety and Health.


• The new requirements and procedures also integrate recent requirements which require training classes to last a maximum of 7½ hours per day and include a new two-hour Introduction to OSHA training module.

The effect of these changes is higher quality OSHA training offered by authorized training groups because, in theory, a better trained worker is a safer worker. As you reviewed the changes to the training program and trainers, what do you think the effect will be? Do you think that the revisions will improve worker safety or are just another paperwork high jump for employers and training institutions?

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Topics: OSHA, General Industry H&S, OSHA Compliance, General EHS, Construction H&S, H&S Training, Compliance, construction, General Industry, Occupational Training, outreach training

By Don Hoeschele, MS, CHMM

In an age where we are reliant on modern technology as a part of our job, it is difficult to imagine not being able to use your cell phone or access the Internet because of topography.  As the Field Safety Manager for a 300-mile electric power transmission power line construction project, one of my first tasks was to address the question “How do you make communication possible across 275 miles of relatively unpopulated, harsh mountainous territory”?  Specifically, I had to meet OSHA’s requirements for communication:  29 CFR 1926.35 “Employee Emergency Action Plans” and 29 CFR 1926.50 “Medical Services and First Aid”.  

For a project health and safety administrator, it is vital to be able to communicate with your team members and with outside resources. How do you keep tabs on who is where and what is happening? How do you find if something has gone wrong or someone needs help?  In fact, these are the reasons that OSHA implemented the Standards listed above – life and death situations may depend upon it!

On this particular project, numerous construction crews were working at different, extremely remote locations with a distance of several miles between each work crew. While the power line tower construction and electric line-stringing companies included requirements for an eventual end-to-end 2-way radio system, the system was not available for at least the first year of the project. And, since cell phones and the average two-way radio systems were not able to be consistently or reliably available to meet the communication needs required for this project, I needed to find an alternative. 

After digging around and countless meetings, calls, and trips to all kinds of communications companies, we settled on a resourceful, cost-conscious and effective method of communicating between the crews, safety personnel, surveyors and managers. The end result was a creative mix of new technologies:

• Cell phone signal boosters in each vehicle in the field


• GPS SPOT locator units for each  crew


• New technology satellite phones for work crews heading into the most remote locations.  

The vendor that built these systems also owned many of the frequencies needed for an end-to-end two-way radio system that would reach across the 275-mile project location.

Of course, the system’s effectiveness had to be proven – we were relying on it! So, I spent hours deep in the mountains field testing the equipment in some of the most remote project locations I have ever seen. Luckily, I was helped by some of the project team members who had spent a great deal of time in this area. Experience also helps communication!

This project had unusual difficulties – a big, remote, mountainous and unpopulated area – that could have thwarted OSHA’s communication requirements.  At any time, it would have been easy to throw in the towel, cross our fingers or perhaps put together a patched-together system and hope it worked.  However, with some tenacious ingenuity and a confidence that a reliable health and safety communication system could be found, we were able to overcome the almost overwhelming challenges and put an effective field communication system into place.

Have you been faced with challenges to provide adequate communication systems for your employees?  What has made a job site seem almost impossible to conquer? What did you do to overcome those challenges?

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Topics: OSHA, health and safety, General Industry H&S, OSHA Compliance, General EHS, Construction H&S, Emergency Response, HazCom, Compliance, worker safety, Occupational Health, Occupational Safety, Hazard Communication Standard, communication

by Ed Pearl

I have been doing on-site environmental health and safety (EHS) work at many types of outdoor job sites for six years.  A big part of the site safety manager at a construction project is air monitoring. When workers have the possibility of exposure to an airborne hazard, it's critical to take frequent measurements of site conditions (often airborne particulates or hydrocarbons) to define worker risk for exposure. When the risk increases, the safety plan kicks in to prevent overexposure. Knowing what is floating in the air at the job site (and how much of it) is why air monitoring is such an important part of any construction site safety program.

For the last several months I have been working at a former Manufactured Gas Plant (MGP) responsible for, yet again, another air monitoring program.  The difference is, for the first time, I’m using the Greenlight Environmental Monitoring System for air monitoring – a completely new experience.   

How I Used to do Air Monitoring

Maybe this daily process looks familiar to you? Snow, rain, ice, cold…the daily routine didn’t vary much!

• I collected the air monitoring instruments at the end of the day and downloaded each one individually to get the day’s readings.

• I checked through the day’s data to see if there were any problems (maybe a little late?).

A real leap in monitoring technology meant that I was using a laptop for data collection!  I drove or walked to each field station to download data onto the computer. Sunny days, while pleasant, had their own challenges – have you ever tried to look at a laptop screen while combating the glare of full sun? Needless to say, when it came to technology I was open…but skeptical.

My New Perspective

The differences between the fairly standard monitoring equipment setup (even with the laptop addition) and how the Greenlight System works is like night and day. As I worked, my initial impressions were shaped by Greenlight’s ease of setup and operation as the entire system design has been set up from an EHS professional’s perspective:

• All monitoring devices in the field are turned on and off from a central location.


• No tedious end-of-the-day drive and download because the System continuously feeds and records monitoring data to a server in “real time”.  

From the minute the project starts up each day, the monitoring results are displayed in REAL TIME on my operator screen.  I can see ALL of the readings from the entire site’s monitoring stations at the same time, no matter where they are in the field!  In fact, now I see site conditions as they happen so that I can take action as needed. And, if a field station or monitoring device is non-responsive, I am notified almost immediately rather than discovering that there’s no valid data to download at the end of the day.

The Greenlight System that I’m using includes what I consider to be ever-important – a weather station:  temperature, humidity, wind speed, and wind direction. Having this information corresponding to particulate or hydrocarbon monitoring -- in real time -- is critical when trying to define potential exposures to hazardous materials and implement appropriate controls. Since weather conditions directly affect air monitoring and have a potential to change quickly (and sometimes without much warning), the data pouring in from the weather station is very useful to have at my fingertips.

The Learning Curve Levels Out

Since I am a new operator of the Greenlight System, it has been a learning process for me. Starting out was a little bit scary! After six years of doing it pretty much one way, it’s a new way of both thinking and reacting. But, the ease of operation and the effectiveness of the System have transformed me…allowing me to provide more effective support to the site construction team. 

• Need the entire site air monitoring and weather condition information? With the data on my computer screen and on the server, if anyone needs a snapshot of site conditions at any moment, I can supply that information.


• Want to know what happened last week? I’ve got it the information all ready to go! It no longer takes hours or days to find the right data and put it into a format that is understandable and explainable.


• Concerned that there is a change in airborne contaminant levels at the site?  I’m on top of that, too! Even when a small change occurs, I am notified immediately, and I can quickly investigate. 

The Data Speaks

My sense is that when the construction team experiences how available the air monitoring data is and that with these data we can be very responsive with control implementation, they are more confident that are working in a safe environment.  The workers seem more content, and project managers are pretty happy knowing that they can continue working safely while staying on time and on budget.

What new innovations do you see in particulate and hydrocarbon monitoring at construction sites? Have you found any other tools that will help you be a more effective site safety manager? What other “tools” would you like that would help you monitor airborne contaminants?

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Topics: General EHS, Construction H&S, Air Monitoring, Occupational Safety, Greenlight, Air Sampling, environmental air monitoring, perimeter air monitoring

Dale Wilson, CIH, LEED AP

We all know what Green Buildings are, right? There are various permutations but generally, to be green, the structure is designed, built, maintained and sustained in an environmentally responsible and resource-efficient manner. The end-all objective is to reduce impact of the “built package and system” on both the environment and mankind by

• Using energy, water, and other resources efficiently


• Protecting occupant health


• Improving employee productivity


• Reducing pollution and waste

As a LEED AP-certified professional who specializes in Indoor Environmental issues with a focus on fire and life safety, I was very interested in recent articles that are creating awareness of some critical health and safety problems inherent to the green building movement that 1) use innovative, locally-produced products, and 2) implement new design, construction, and operation approaches intended to reduce energy usage and be environmentally sound.

Green Building Fire Safety

In Megan Grennille’s recent EHSWire article about the seminal Triangle Fire, it noted that building and fire code rules caught up with the high rise construction only after the tragedy of 146 worker deaths highlighted the challenges of safety and rescue in the case of a fire. The same situation recently occurred in Bakersfield where a green-constructed Target store highlighted some new concerns for health and safety for emergency responders:

“The fire at the Bakersfield Target started, firefighters learned, at the photovoltaic array [solar] on the building's roof. Even after the firefighters disconnected the electrical mains, they discovered that the solar panels were still energized, presenting a safety challenge in addition to the fire.”

This brings to light how the integration of green building practices on a seemingly typical commercial building can present new hazards that must be identified to protect building occupants and emergency responders.  Fire fighters responding to an alarm may cut electrical power from the supply grid, but what is the procedure if there is an active solar array or an integrated wind turbine generating power as a part of the building?  Other “new” electrical and fire hazards facing unprepared emergency responders include the unknown level of fire resistance of recycled/green building materials, how to control fire spread on green vegetative roofs, and how to control smoke in wide, open atrium areas.

“ owners of green buildings might have to be aware that the green designs can present previously unconsidered challenges that arise as a direct result of construction choices. ...Because codes — even a decade after green design concepts hit the mainstream — still largely deal with traditional building designs and materials, facility managers have to know how to address the intersection of green design and current codes.”

The bottom line is that "green concepts should be reviewed as part of a fire-protection and life-safety analysis”, because buildings, green or not, must meet building and fire code standards to protect the health and safety of both the occupants and emergency responders.

Moisture and Mold Management in Green Buildings

Another potential hazard of green buildings is the management of moisture within the building and how selection of a green design and materials may be inappropriate if the location and weather are not considered:  “the design-and-construction community must not assume that if one builds green, then one will be building regionally correct or even lower risk buildings”.

A recent article, Hidden Risks of Green Buildings, was written from an insurance underwriter’s perspective and centered on the management of moisture.  The article mentioned the trend of using carbohydrate-based building products instead of petroleum-based building products.  That is where my eyes widened! Any indoor quality consultant knows the formula:  moisture + food source = perfect habitat for mold growth.  Carbohydrate-based building products are food for mold!

Moisture comes from many sources in a building: bulk water from a rook, window, or facade leak; water pipe break; HVAC condensate overflow; condensation on cold surfaces; or vapor (relative humidity) in the air.  Additional humidity can be added to the air by introducing humid outdoor air that has not been properly dehumidified or from other sources such as showers, locker rooms, steam rooms, gyms, kitchen facilities, human respiration (particularly if more people are occupying the space than the original design).  ( More information on these moisture-related potential problems including the risk of LEED “flush-outs” can be found here.)

Moisture meeting carbohydrate-based building materials over time certainly does look like the potential beginning of The Perfect Storm, because, in reality, carbohydrate-based building materials, even treated with the best biocide, would only be “mold resistant” not “mold proof”.  Given food, water, and time… mold will grow.  So as a professional IEQ consultant who has seen it all when it comes to mold contamination, I sincerely believe the article’s foreshadowing that “ the design community would be advised to prioritize the lessons…already learned from the waterproofing, humidity control, and building forensics community”.  When using potential mold “food” within a building, moisture control is ever more critical to the air quality of the building as well as the building material’s life cycle.

Are you interested in green construction? Have you thought of the potential hazards that can be created when using new technologies, new materials and tightening up the envelope?

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Topics: indoor air quality, health and safety, General EHS, Construction H&S, Emergency Response, worker safety, Air Sampling, Mold, Fire Safety, Exposure, Respiratory, green buildings, Working Green

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Topics: OSHA, health and safety, General Industry H&S, OSHA Compliance, General EHS, Construction H&S, Emergency Response, H&S Training, worker safety, Occupational Health, Occupational Safety, regulation, Fire Safety, shirtwaist, fire, triangle