Dave Johnson

The third day of AIHce 2013 featured a General Session address by L. Casey Chosewood, MD, Senior Medical Officer for Total Worker Health™, NIOSH, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia.

OSHA Standards 29-CFR, Part 1910. Occupational Safety and Health Standards. 1910 sub part S (electrical) Standard number 1910.333 specifically addresses Standards for Work Practices and references NFPA 70E.

Consultants Tom Rancour and Bradford Russell offered these takeaways in a session at the AIHce: Some companies implement and dedicate time to management systems, but the guiding principle, the safety and health policy, is buried in some labor manual. Without a “map,” management systems develop “escapes”  or leaks in risk management compliance because the vision and the followup protocols are buried.

Prominent at this year’s AIHce were seminars and workshops reflecting the American Industrial Hygiene Association’s (AIHA biennial membership survey listing top public policy issues of concern to AIHA members and the occupational and environmental health and safety (OEHS) profession over the next two years.

The American Industrial Hygiene Association® (AIHA), the Indoor Air Quality Association (IAQA) and AIHA Registry Programs, LLC, signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that will lead the way toward joint development of a registry for qualified indoor air quality (IAQ) practitioners.

Four different arc flash type events need to be assessed when designing safety programs: Open Air Arc Flashes; Ejected Arc Flashes; Equipment Focused Arc; Flashes (Arc-in-a-box); Tracking Arc Flashes. Many methods exist to protect personnel from arc flash hazards.

The13th Annual Upton Sinclair Memorial Lecture for Outstanding EHS Investigative Reporting at AIHce was entitled, “Breaking the Silence: The Importance of Public Records for Worker Safety at Sensient Flavors,” presented by Tony Cook, an Indianapolis Star reporter who covered the investigation of the Sensient plant where federal health officials found a third of the plant’s roughly 100 production workers had experienced abnormally restrictive lung function.

A packed assembly room at the AIHce was treated to a conversation between OSHA boss Dr. David Michaels and a former OSHA chief, John Henshaw, who headed OSHA during the Bush II administration. Here are some takeaways from Dr. Michaels’ comments:

The American Industrial Hygiene Conference and Exposition (AIHce) 2013 concluded its six-day event with the induction of a new American Industrial Hygiene Association® (AIHA) leader. Barbara J. Dawson, CIH, CSP, was inducted as president of the international professional society, which represents 10,000 occupational and environmental health and safety professionals.

An arc flash is distinctly different from the arc blast. It is part of an arc fault, a type of electrical explosion that results from a low-impedance connection to ground or another voltage phase in an electrical system.