Health and Safety Issues in Assaying

 Workplace Hazards

Hazard Training Standards

Understanding all of the potential risks in an assay laboratory can be difficult. Employees working under MSHA guidelines (mining labs, but not commercial assay labs) have increased minimum safety training requirements. Standards applied to mining start by requiring that any employee who is new to mining must complete 24 hours of general hazard training before entering the workplace. Once they enter the workplace and before they begin work, employers must document additional area-specific "introduction to workplace hazards" (5023 training). Once in the workplace, hazard training does not end. MSHA can require documented training records for all new (I.e., new to the employees experience) hazards. Finally, "old hands" must complete at least eight hours of annual MSHA refresher training.  Failure to maintain current training records can result in government fines or more serious actions against employers.

If you are concerned that your training was insufficient or you are trying to develop your own hazard recognition training, there are several sites which help with risk assessment. OSHA provides free software tools for workplace assessment. MSHA provides help in building training plans, hazard recognition, and compliance reviews.

If you want a concrete example of hazard training in an assay laboratory, click here to visit a slide show that reviews one approach to assay labortory safety training. The example is designed for a smaller lab and emphasizes the team approaches to safety training, but the concepts behind the application can be useful in a wider context.

Understanding Chemical Exposure Risk

Assayers often have specific chemical exposure risks that, as part of their "right-to-know" they should review.  The first stop in understanding these is a review of  Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) for any material you encounter during work. However, MSDS sheets do not always give a full or clear picture of chemical hazards. The Merck Manual can be a useful tool for understanding the implications of MSDS information. (It also has extensive information in plain english on diseases, diagnosis, disease prevention, and other medical details. (site under construction).
 

Additional Resources

A wide variety of web sites offer information that can be useful for assessing workplace safety. These sites include:

• American Conferance of Governmental Industrial Hygenists (ACGI) is a source (not free) of useful safety  publications and useful software.
• The Agency for Toxic Substances and Desease Registery (ATSDR) hazard summaries are often simpler and easer to understand than MSDS sheets. Of particualr interet are the areas on
• the affects of lead (commonly used by fire assayers) and
  
• the ToxFAQs (short summaries of health concerns for priority hazardous substances).
• University of Bristol (UK) has a site describing laboratory safety policies and procedures. as well as a list of links to additional safety sites.
  
• Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS)
• Canadian Mine Aggregate health and Safety Association (MASHA) (A training version of the Neil George 5-point safety system can be purchased here)
• The U.S. Center for Disease Control (CDC)
  
• Cornell ergonomics site (proper body motion for preventing repetitive motion disease)
• The Laboratroy Safety Institute provides a number of useful resources and sugetions.
  
• The U.S. National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has a wide variety of resources availible on thier chemical safety page. All of the listed resource links are useful; resources of particular interest include:
• NIOSH Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards (the spiral bound published version can be handy also)
• NIOSH's version of International Chemical Safety Cards (ICSCs)  can be useful rapid safety  references.
  
• The National Safety Council (NSC)
• The Australian National Occupational Health and Safety Commission offers a searchable database of industrial health articles. Online articles specifically relevant to the assaying industry include the following:
• A brief fire assaying health pamphlet lists common health hazards and hazard reduction recommendations.
• Silica articles include a dust hazards pamphlet, a brief summary of silica dust exposure concerns and an abstract of a pamphlet (available by order) on possible silica fume exposure concerns.
• An abstract of an asthma study linking people with prior history of asthma to a possible increased risk of hyperreactivity to chemicals in the assaying environment
• The University of Virginia publishes a Laboratory Survival Manual that is easy to navigate and is useful for understanding, evaluating, and developing laboratory safety systems.