I have been over this a few times and it's easy. Maybe some of the guys on here with permanently damaged lungs from years of harsh exposure can chime in and share.
In a nut shell OSHA requires you to wear a face shield, respirator and gloves if you are spraying chemicals. For a respirator to work properly you need to be clean shaven were it rests on your face. So goatees are ok. Your guys should be respirator safety trained and sign a certificate saying they have done the training. (takes about 1/2hr.) OSHA also requires that you take a physical to see if your body can handle wearing a respirator.
But for many that is not good enough. They will spray without them.
Here it is in a nutshell. Sodium Hypochlorite eats organic matter like it's candy. Including your lungs. Chlorine is a gas and a liquid, hence chlorine gas will eat your lungs, burn them like plant roots and eventually that will probably kill you before anything else does. We have guys on here with the lungs to prove it.
If you hit the second link you will see a roof cleaner in the hospital bed from his chlorine damaged lungs at the end of the thread. This is not a joke. If you guys are not wearing your gear, you might as well right stupid on your head.
I have been over this a few times and it's easy. Maybe some of the guys on here with permanently damaged lungs from years of harsh exposure can chime in and share.
In a nut shell OSHA requires you to wear a face shield, respirator and gloves if you are spraying chemicals. For a respirator to work properly you need to be clean shaven were it rests on your face. So goatees are ok. Your guys should be respirator safety trained and sign a certificate saying they have done the training. (takes about 1/2hr.) OSHA also requires that you take a physical to see if your body can handle wearing a respirator.
But for many that is not good enough. They will spray without them.
Here it is in a nutshell. Sodium Hypochlorite eats organic matter like it's candy. Including your lungs. Chlorine is a gas and a liquid, hence chlorine gas will eat your lungs, burn them like plant roots and eventually that will probably kill you before anything else does. We have guys on here with the lungs to prove it.
-- Edited by Baltimore MD Roof Cleaning 410-482-4367 on Thursday 2nd of September 2010 12:21:11 AM
Thank you for making it vividly clear. Better to learn to learn the easy way and take precautions than pay to learn with your only set of lungs. And that is just on the personal side. As far as employees go, HUGE liability risk.
I have been over this a few times and it's easy. Maybe some of the guys on here with permanently damaged lungs from years of harsh exposure can chime in and share.
In a nut shell OSHA requires you to wear a face shield, respirator and gloves if you are spraying chemicals. For a respirator to work properly you need to be clean shaven were it rests on your face. So goatees are ok. Your guys should be respirator safety trained and sign a certificate saying they have done the training. (takes about 1/2hr.) OSHA also requires that you take a physical to see if your body can handle wearing a respirator.
But for many that is not good enough. They will spray without them.
Here it is in a nutshell. Sodium Hypochlorite eats organic matter like it's candy. Including your lungs. Chlorine is a gas and a liquid, hence chlorine gas will eat your lungs, burn them like plant roots and eventually that will probably kill you before anything else does. We have guys on here with the lungs to prove it.
-- Edited by Baltimore MD Roof Cleaning 410-482-4367 on Thursday 2nd of September 2010 12:21:11 AM
Thank you for making it vividly clear. Better to learn to learn the easy way and take precautions than pay to learn with your only set of lungs. And that is just on the personal side. As far as employees go, HUGE liability risk.
Your darn right. Think the asbestos suits were bad?? Wait till the chlorine suits come.
Baltimore MD Roof Cleaning 410-482-4367 wrote:Chlorine is a gas and a liquid, hence chlorine gas will eat your lungs, burn themlike plant roots and eventually that will probably kill you before anything else does. We have guys on here with the lungs to prove it.
That is a great analogy Bill, because that is exactly what it is like. The alveoli in the lungs are like little capilary sacs thta intake gasses and when they are hit with liquid, such as a strong oxidizer like what we use you can be in big trouble and cause pulminary edima, which is bleeding of the lungs.
This can happen with just one big enough intake of vapor! Enough day to day breathing in and out obviously can rough things up and cause scar tissue and when you have internal scar tissue you know what that means.....High risk for the big Casino....Cancer. Not to mention take a peek at your hands. We don't exactly have the hands of a lawyer now do we. Well the roughness or calluses on your hands happens with your lungs too.
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Bucks County PA Roof Cleaning 267-477-1107 Free Your Pennsylvania Roof From Fungus Serving all of Bucks and Montgomery Counties and surrounding areas of Philadelphia Chalfont, PA 18914
I don't even work in the field every day and I am bleach sensitive. What does bleach sensitive mean? Well, when I asked my doctor why the smell of bleach makes my skin crawl and my heart race, he told me that is my body's adrenaline reaction telling it to get away from the smell because damage has already occurred in my lungs. PPE is definitely no joke. I don't need some jackazz ambulance chasing lawyer making a commercial ten years from now.. "Did you work for a pressure washing company and now live with respiratory distress? Call now to get a huge cash settlement."
I tour jobsites on off days and have fired three guys this year for consistently not wearing protection. In the beginning I didn't want to scare customers walking around like a renegade Hazmat cleanup crew. Now I explain during a sale that employees will be wearing respiratory protection and to not get nervous as we are just taking extra precaution.
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Ken Fenner PA Roof Cleaning Company offering Roof Cleaning Western Delaware County, PA + Main Line including Broomall, Newtown Square, Media, Springfield, Aston, Ardmore, Haverford, Drexel Hill, Aston, Haverford, Ardmore, Villanova, Radnor Roof Cleaning.