Snail Scott on wed 21 may 03
Not strictly relevant to clay, but...
At the university bronze foundry where I work part-time
as the technician, the Health and Safety folks came
and observed a pour. Afterward, they asked to monitor
the air for contaminants. I was kinda curious about
the levels of the metal fumes myself, so the next time
we poured, I spent all day wearing their atmosphere-
sampling pump. I spent the day putting metal into the
hot crucible, checked the melt and its temperature all
day, skimmed off the crap occasionally, and eventually
poured the metal in two successive pours.
This process isn't quite the same as firing a fuel
kiln, but there are a lot of similarities, too, and
probably more exposure to fumes, since there's no
chimney and there's a lot more metal involved. (The
alloy we use contains 95% copper, and 1% manganese
as well as about 4% silica, in 150# quantities.)
Anyway...
I got the results back today, and the exposure to
copper and manganese (the only toxins in the alloy) was
well below the approved limits:
ArialCopper Result: 0.027 mg/m3
(8-hr Time Weighted Average)
OSHA Copper Permissible Exposure Limit: 0.1 mg/m3 (8-hr Time Weighted
Average)
ArialManganese Result: 0.00086 mg/m3
(8-hr Time Weighted Average)
ACGIH Threshold Limit Value: 0.2 mg/m3 anticipated change to 0.03 mg/m3
(8-hr Time Weighted Average)
Arial
This may or may not be relevant to kiln-firing
exposure,
but I'm glad to know for my own information, and I
figured someone out there might be interested.
-Snail
Snail Scott on thu 22 may 03
At 04:19 AM 5/22/03 +0100, Mike wrote:
>I worked in a bronze foundry for about 3 yrs. but no
>one ever came around unless somebody complained to OSHA.
My experience with OSHA (the US gov't occupational safety
agency) has been generally bad, as they seem to focus
consistently on trivia and nearly irrelevant 'checklist'
items while missing truly hazardous conditions. They also
seem to pursue a nearly vindictive relationship with the
workplaces they inspect, handing out punitive punishments
to well-intentioned companies who question their methods.
No wonder even the most concerned outfits see an OSHA
inspection as less desirable than burning hemorrhoids!
We are very fortunate here to have an in-house safety
organization which sees its mission as working WITH the
various departments to improve safety and increase our
awareness of potential hazards. They've worked hard to
make all the OSHA-shy folks around here come to value
their input and assistance - no easy task! When my boss
called them up and said, "We think we don't have enough
ventilation in our wood shop; could you come and take a
look?", several old-timers said, "Oh, no! You've gone
and done it now! They'll cite us and shut us down for
sure!" Instead, they looked at our situation, suggested
remedies for the things we could fix, and ways to
ameliorate or reduce the impact of the things we couldn't.
Practical, achievable goals. I was really amazed.
At my old college, the in-house safety guys actually
enforced the moronic regulations that say NO respirator
can be used by anyone on the premises unless it's been
inspected and tested by THEIR office, on the other side
of campus, after applying to have the test done and
making an appointment to do so. They also prohibited
us from keeping any first-aid supplies on hand, as they
might be utilized by persons without medical certification,
and that could lead to lawsuits! Naive me, when I started
as a tech there, I asked to re-stock the band-aids and
burn cream. NO! Not permitted! I kept a stash in my
locker, but could have gotten in trouble for handing
them out. We were supposed to send any injured students
to the Health Center across campus, which was only open
during daytime hours. Even if a band-aid would have done
the job. And students weren't permitted to wear dust masks
while mixing clay and glaze unless each one had made an
appointment at the safety office and has the tests done.
(OSHA regs) Yeah, right. And they wonder why they are
so universally despised by the people the claim to be
advocates for.
-Snail
Mike Gordon on thu 22 may 03
Hi Snail,
Thats good news, I'm glad your foundry is practicing good safty
enviorment rules. I worked in a bronze foundry for about 3 yrs. but no
one ever came around unless somebody complained to OSHA. But its
something all raku potters should be aware of and that is the metal
fumes coming out of the kiln as they look inside to watch the glaze
melt. No need to stand around the kiln enjoying the scene, look, see,
and get away . Mike Gordon
Edouard Bastarache on thu 22 may 03
Hello Snail,
very interesting post.
It shows that it is not because there is smoke
that there is a hazard to health.
"A pile of manure has never killed a farmer,
otherwise we would not be here",
as I often say to workers.
It shows that it is always better to make some=20
measurements of the exposure of workers before
concluding.
Later.
"Ils sont fous ces Quebecois"
Edouard Bastarache
Irreductible Quebecois
Indomitable Quebeker
Sorel-Tracy
Quebec
edouardb@sorel-tracy.qc.ca
http://sorel-tracy.qc.ca/~edouardb/
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/smart2000/index.htm
Butch Welch on thu 22 may 03
Edouard,
You posted: It shows that it is not because there is smoke
that there is a hazard to health.
"A pile of manure has never killed a farmer,
otherwise we would not be here",
as I often say to workers.
Link to the dangers of entering confined space where manure is in storage,
it produces methane gas, that is deathly and has killed many farmers.
It shows that it is always better to make some
measurements of the exposure of workers before
concluding.
http://www.ag.uiuc.edu/agsafety/manure.html
Avoid entering manure storage areas if at all possible!! Many deaths have
occurred when people entered manure storage areas without proper safety
precautions.
regards, Butch
Edouard Bastarache on thu 22 may 03
Hello Butch,
I was talking about pile of manure out in the open air
as not being a major source of toxicants..
Later,
"Ils sont fous ces Quebecois"
Edouard Bastarache
Irreductible Quebecois
Indomitable Quebeker
Sorel-Tracy
Quebec
edouardb@sorel-tracy.qc.ca
http://sorel-tracy.qc.ca/~edouardb/
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/smart2000/index.htm
----- Original Message -----
From: Butch Welch
To:
Sent: Thursday, May 22, 2003 1:18 PM
Subject: Re: metal fumes
> Edouard,
> You posted: It shows that it is not because there is smoke
> that there is a hazard to health.
> "A pile of manure has never killed a farmer,
> otherwise we would not be here",
> as I often say to workers.
>
> Link to the dangers of entering confined space where manure is in storage,
> it produces methane gas, that is deathly and has killed many farmers.
>
> It shows that it is always better to make some
> measurements of the exposure of workers before
> concluding.
>
> http://www.ag.uiuc.edu/agsafety/manure.html
> Avoid entering manure storage areas if at all possible!! Many deaths have
> occurred when people entered manure storage areas without proper safety
> precautions.
>
> regards, Butch
>
>
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iandol on wed 28 may 03
Dear Louis Katz,=20
No problems with your opinions. I recognised the tenor of your remarks =
as being a record of your observations. My own feeling is that without =
some sort of supporting information or evidence we should be very =
careful in coming to any conclusions. Lead, and its compounds are a good =
illustration of this. I have the best of the available reference books =
which might be found outside a Uni library. There is nothing in them =
which really points to high levels of volatility at the temperatures we =
use to fire our kilns.
If someone can get their hands on the Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of =
Chemical Technology or one of the other multi volume chemical texts =
(Which will probably be printed in German)we might get a better =
understanding of what really happens in the process of firing our kilns.
I am enjoying our conversations.
Best regards,
Ivor Lewis
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