OSHA issues guide on ethylene oxide
A new guide from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration answers a myriad of questions about monitoring workspaces where ethylene oxide (EtO) is used. For example, OSHA explains that you may not need to monitor each individual employee. "But you do need to determine the exposure level of every employee. If you have only one employee, or just a few who all do different jobs, you need to collect personal samples for each employee. If you have two or more employees who do the same job, however, you may be able to collect personal samples for one of these employees and use the results to document exposure levels for all of these employees. This is known as representative sampling."
When should you monitor? You must collect a 15-minute air sample during the portion of the work shift when you have reason to believe that the employee's EtO exposure will be the highest. You may need to collect several 15-minute samples during the same shift.
The publication is available at www.osha.gov/Publications/ethylene-oxide.pdf.
A new guide from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration answers a myriad of questions about monitoring workspaces where ethylene oxide (EtO) is used.You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
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