Dave Finkelnburg on sun 30 jan 05
Dear Vince,
You are right, of course, that partial use of a respirator is better than wearing none at all. Some of your other thinking on the subject of respirators, however, is dangerously wrong. Your emotional attack on the federal agency responsible for enforcing worker safety rules in the US is especially wrong-headed.
Maurice asked how one seals a respirator over a beard. I wrote, correctly, one can't. Period. That is a fact. You can, of course, get a partial seal, so you filter out some of the dust you would otherwise breathe, but you don't breathe air as clean as you could make it with a properly sealed respirator.
I know you mean well, and are as concerned about safety in the studio as anyone can be. Still, I have to say you appear to be approaching this subject without enough knowledge.
For example, you claim the system is flawed because OSHA wants employers to have a respiratory protection program. Vince, if you put a respirator on someone who hasn't had a pulmonary function test, and may be susceptible to an asthma attack, you can kill them. This is serious business.
If you, as a business owner, require employees to use respirators to keep their jobs, and then don't teach them how to properly care for those respirators, sooner or later the employees' health is going to suffer from that.
The part you are missing in all this is OSHA never says it's OK to expose workers to respirable dust and fumes without protection. The regulations say a company can only require employees to work in such conditions with an intelligent, managed, documented respiratory protection system in place. Without such a system an employer cannot legally expose employees to the hazard.
That does not mean, as you imply, that if an employee has a beard and can't seal a respirator, OSHA would have you just send the worker to do the job without a respirator. The rules say, you either find the employee different work or send the employee home or ensure that they do what's necessary to seal the respirator, such as shave. Want your company to get a fat fine real fast? Just let an employee work in an OSHA-regulated workplace without adequate respiratory protection.
I don't know what your experience with OSHA has been. Mine has been first-hand, in an industrial environment with significant exposure to silica dust and hazardous chemical fumes. I've been one of the workers wearing a respirator, and I've also been a supervisor responsible for the safety and health of others.
I've spent plenty of time, on the job and in safety conferences, working with OSHA inspectors and managers. All of my experience with OSHA employees showed me genuine professionals whose passion is worker safety. At no time did I find, as you suggest, some grand OSHA conspiracy against logic.
Regards,
Dave Finkelnburg
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Michael Wendt on mon 31 jan 05
To add to Dave's admonition about beards and respirators, the only way you
could imaginably wear a beard and not be exposed to some dust is to have an
overpressure respirator.
Two types I know of are:
1. air line supplied with approved respirable air such as sand blasters use.
2. battery powered back pack systems that employ a fan and hepa filter.
In either case, if the supplied air volume is sufficient, the overpressure
will exceed air demand on respiration and result in leakage out of the mask
around the beard.
Regards,
Michael Wendt
Wendt Pottery
2729 Clearwater Ave
Lewiston, Idaho 83501
USA
wendtpot@lewiston.com
www.wendtpottery.com
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