Personal Protective Equipment and SPF

By: Stephanie Marie Chizik 
 

We are focused on workers...We are serious about workplace protection. We are serious about workplace health. And we are serious about workplace safety.” These words, which came from Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis at the American Society of Safety Engineers’ (ASSE) conference this past June, express how the new U.S. administration under President Obama has focused on the idea of change.


In the past year, there has been much change in the way we look at things, including health care, the flu, and some codes. In the midst of all of these changes, the construction industry has not been forgotten. In the same ASSE speech, Solis supported the seriousness about being safe by sharing a proposed budget increase for Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the government agency that overlooks on-the-job injuries and illnesses.


The proposed increase — $50.6 million — would be partially used to hire 200+ new employees, including inspectors, discrimination investigators, and staff members (who will be assigned to help develop workplace standards for safety and health). In addition, Solis shared that an emphasis has been put on hiring bilingual staff to help address changes seen in workplace demographics.

 
For the spray polyurethane foam (SPF) industry, these changes mean that every part of the job — from start to finish — may be affected. Safety should be a priority. Safety should mean no short-cuts or omissions. Safety, one could assume, will mean more inspections, investigations, and standards. Our country is changing and so, too, must we.

 To help accommodate for these changes, check out the information below for a round-up of the personal protective equipment (PPE) and practices that we have covered throughout the year. The more you know about safety, the safer you may be.

 Basic Principles
 First, let’s recap what the standard PPE is for any SPF job site. Before anyone enters the work area, a Safety Plan (a.k.a. a Safety Program or Injury and Illness Prevention Program) needs to have been devised and written. The Safety Plan should include separate sections for specific protection, such as respirators and harnesses.
 

The Safety Plan should also include all Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) from every chemical and piece of equipment used. It should include what type of PPE each crew member should be wearing for each activity during SPF installation. The person spray-applying the SPF and the person shaving off the excess foam will most likely be wearing different PPE. However, the SPF helper and the SPF applicator should most likely be wearing the same PPE. That means that if the applicator is wearing a foam resistant suit, gloves,  a protective covering over their boots (no open skin) and a supplied air respirator (SAR) for an interior application, so should the helper.
 

With very distinct required PPE for different activities, it is important to know that these differences are not up to the individual. In fact, there are very specific guidelines given by OSHA, the Spray Polyurethane Foam Alliance (SPFA), and the Center for Polyurethanes Industry (CPI).
  

For instance, OSHA requires that the employer supplies any necessary respiratory equipment. Standard 29 CFR 1910.134(a)(2) states, “the employer shall provide the respirators, which are applicable and suitable for the purpose intended. The employer shall be responsible for the establishment and maintenance of a respiratory protection program, which shall include the requirements outlined in paragraph (c) of this section. The program shall cover each employee required by this section to use a respirator.” This information will be included in your written Respiratory Protection Program which should be onsite for every job.
 

Meanwhile, CPI and SPFA add to that some SPF-specific requirements. In the case of respirators, they advise that an interior sprayer (and, therefore, helper, too) should wear a National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)-approved full-face or hood-supplied air respirator, or SAR. Exposed skin should also be covered when applying SPF in interior applications.  For an exterior sprayer (and helper), a NIOSH-approved air-purifying respirator (APR) or SAR should be worn. It is also noted that anyone on the job site who is not spraying or helping but is doing other work (referred to here as a non-sprayer) should wear a NIOSH-approved APR if handling heated SPF chemicals.

Taking a little extra time up front to research and process the specific PPE-related information may help save you and your crew time and money in the future. Go over your Safety Plan with your crew before the job starts. Hold regular safety or “toolbox” meetings. Keep lines of communication open before, during, and after each job. Assign a Safety Monitor – someone who can help you make sure all standards are being met. Protect your crew, and you will protect yourself.

 Dealing With Drums

 Once you have your Safety Plan developed, it will be time to head to the job site. When loading the drums onto the truck, maneuvering them during the job, and reloading the drums after the job, it will be important for each member of your crew to know how to deal with these drums. 
 

While completing the SPF job, unexpected events may occur. Anyone handling the raw chemicals of SPF — the “A”-side, which contains the isocyanate, and the “B”-side, which contains the resin — needs to know that spillages may happen. Although many times these spillages involve small amounts of chemicals, there are still very specific steps that should be followed when this happens:

•    Evacuate non-essential people.
•    Notify management.
•    Put on full PPE.
•    Control the source of the leak.
•    Contain the spill.
•    Neutralize the diisocyanate.
•    Decontaminate all surfaces and equipment.
•    Dispose of the residues.
•    Check that the decontamination has been successful.
•    Record the incident.

 For a more specific account of how to handle spillages, check out “Dealing With Spillages of PMDI” from the August 2009 issue of SprayFoam Magazine.

 Finally, once the job has been completed and it comes time to dispose of the empty (or near-empty) drums, will you know how? CPI gives advice on the specific steps that must be taken to empty and dispose of both the “A”-side and “B”-side drums. Like all other steps involved in dealing with SPF drums, wearing PPE in this final step is crucial to the safety of your crew. To read the entire article, titled “Disposal of Used Spray Polyurethane Foam Drums,” check out the June 2009 issue of SprayFoam Magazine.

Special Circumstances
Not all SPF job sites can have perfect circumstances. They can’t all be open areas with great ventilation in 70°F (21.1°C) weather and zero humidity. Although wouldn’t that make your job easier?! Instead, many times, SPF needs to be applied in sticky situations — hot attics, narrow tanks, or freezing crawlspaces. It’s the jobs with special circumstances that require special safe practices.


Probably one of the more common of the special areas in the SPF industry is working in an enclosed or confined space. OSHA defines these spaces in Standard 29 CFR 1926.21(b)(6)(ii) as “a limited means of egress, which is subject to the accumulation of toxic or flammable contaminants or has an oxygen-deficient atmosphere.” These types of spaces may include “storage tanks, process vessels, bins, boilers, ventilation or exhaust ducts, sewers, underground utility vault, tunnels, pipelines, and open top spaces more than four feet [1.2m] in depth, such as pits, tubs, vaults, and vessels.” These confined spaces may require that the SPF company takes a few extra precautions before starting the job, such as testing the air quality before spraying begins. This may also mean that respiratory equipment may be more rigorous. In areas that are deemed “confined spaces”, wokers will have to use a SAR (supplied air respirator) with a 15 minute egress bottle usually attached to their waist. This is just insurance. If the line were crimped or the pump supplying breathing air shut down, the worker would still have 15 minutes of air to safely leave the confined space.

On the other end of the spectrum of special circumstances are wide open spaces. On some job sites, working conditions in these areas may require additional equipment to reach necessary heights. This may mean that the crew members need to use scaffolding, ladders, or stilts, each of which require specific standards to which you’d need to adhere. Wearing stilts on scaffolding, for example, has specific directives in standard 29 CFR 1926.452(b)(1), which states, “when employees are using stilts, the top edge height of the top rail, or equivalent member, shall be increased an amount equal to the height of the stilts.” This means that if your applicator is wearing four-foot-tall (1.2m) stilts, the top rail on the scaffold must be an additional four feet (1.2m) high. For more information, check out the attached OSHA Quick Card regarding scaffolding.

 In addition to the type of space in which the SPF team is working, temperature may be another special circumstance that must be handled appropriately. Many times, working in interior spaces means working with extreme heat or extreme cold. Since SPF is often used to insulate rooms for these temperature issues, it makes sense that the applicators would have to deal with them, too.

 In areas where humidity and heat rule, cooling equipment may be needed. Several options include fans, cooled air, and cooling vests. In cool temperatures, portable heaters and halogen lamps will help warm the substrate and the applicator. In general, it would be safe to assume that if additional equipment is needed on your SPF job site, then additional safety precautions must be followed.

 Overall, whether or not you believe in the policies of our new administration, we need to adopt Solis’ philosophy. Fittingly shared in her Labor Day speech, Solis said, “It's not a good job unless it's a safe job.”

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