January 2005 | March 2005 | April 2005 | June 2005 | July 2005 | August 2005 | September 2005 | November 2005

April 2005

Introduction/Administrative News
The TRADE Industrial Hygiene/Occupational Safety Special Interest Group (IH/OS SIG) Steering Committee met on April 28, 2005 through a conference call meeting. IH/OS SIG Steering Committee Chair Ralph Hinterman, Argonne National Laboratory-East (ANL-E), facilitated the meeting in which the following Steering Committee members and guests participated:

• Phil Grogin, Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL)
• Ralph Hinterman, ANL-E, IH/OS SIG Steering Committee Chair
• Bob Kapolka, Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE), IH/OS SIG Steering Committee Advisory Chair
• Dr. Daniel Marsick, DOE, EH-52, Office Of Worker Protection Policy and Programs
• Bill McArthur, DOE, EH-52, Office Of Worker Protection Policy and Programs
• Deborah McFalls, ORISE, IH/OS SIG Coordinator
• Rob Nicholas, LANL
• John Peters, Brookhaven National Laboratory
• Frank Tooper, DOE EH-32, Office of Analytical Studies
• David Weitzman, DOE EH-52, Office Of Worker Protection Policy and Programs

The following Steering Committee member notified the IH/OS SIG Chair/Coordinator that he could not participate in the meeting:

• Michael Hurshman, S.M. Stoller  

Overview of the DOE Special Operations Report: Laser Safety
Frank Tooper from Headquarters briefed the committee on the newly released DOE Special Operations Report: Laser Safety document. DOE has chosen to enhance their Operating Experience Program which will include more information related to lessons learned, best practices, etc. Future Headquarters’ activities will also include more field engagement with the site offices and contractors. Under this program, information sent to the DOE contractors fall under 4 different levels of concern with the 4 th level being of the highest concern to DOE:

Laser safety falls under the 4 th level of concern. DOE’s upper management’s concern has heightened about the number of laser accidents that are occurring within the DOE complex. In the past 2 years, there have been 6 laser accidents of which 4 have occurred with graduate students. One of the accidents resulted in lost eye vision. These accidents became the driver for issuant of the document, DOE Special Operations Report: Laser Safety which included performance expectations with actions required of the contractors within 90 days of issuant. Laser safety experts from LANL, Lawrence National Laboratory, and ANL-E were consulted on the development of the document. During that process, Frank was surprised to learn that DOE was unaware of how many lasers were in operation within the DOE complex. Today, their best estimate is that there are about 7,500 lasers being used. It is anticipating that more lasers will go into operation in the future that are even more powerful than what was used in the past. Frank stressed that laser users need to comply with Z136.1 ANSI Standard For the Safe Use of Lasers. In the new draft of 10 CFR 851 rule, the contractors are instructed to comply with the entire ANSI laser safety standard. Frank also stressed that DOE officials that have oversight of the laser operations at the facilities should be trained on the ANSI standard. Contractors and DOE field managers who oversee laser operations need to verify that these laser expectations will be met within 90 days. The root cause of the problems in the past is that management has failed to see that the ANSI standard has been fully implemented at the DOE sites. Frank reported there were 4 common failures with the accidents that occurred within the DOE complex:

• Inadequate training
• Insufficient understand of the hazards and the need for work controls
• Inadequate laser safety officer conduct
• Infrequent management oversight of laser operations and the accidents

According to Frank, the bottom line is to wear the appropriate safety equipment around lasers.  

Update on DOE ESH Draft Laser Safety “Safety & Health Bulletin”
Dan Marsick from Headquarters updated the Committee on the development of the DOE Draft Laser Safety “Safety & Health Bulletin. Dan reported the bulletin is going to be changed to become more of an awareness poster for safety and health professionals in the laboratory. The bulletin could take 3 to 4 months to complete.

10 CFR 851 Briefing
Bill McArthur from Headquarters briefed the Committee on the new draft of the 10 CFR 851 rule.

The public comment period ended April 26. DOE received about 70 comments to address which they are in the process of copying so they can be posted on DOE’s regulatory Web site page at: http://www.eh.doe.gov/rulemaking/. Two public meetings were held: one in Washington D.C. and another one through a tele-video meeting format for a Richland , Washington location mainly made up of employees from the Hanford Site. Over the next several weeks, DOE will review the comments, discuss them with subject matter experts, and then decide what changes to make to the current draft rule. They hope that no comments will warrant republishing a public notice. They would like to publish a rule before December of this year. Bill reminded Committee members that a rule is not final until a year after it has been published. He has asked David Weitzman to develop an implementation guide for the new rule which would contain a section on what a health and safety plan would look like and how Integrated Safety Management (ISM) documentation could be used to satisfy the requirements in the rule. They hope to have the guidance manual completed shortly after the rule is published. During that period, the manual will be available in the system for comments on ways to improve it.

Nanotechnology/Nanomaterials Activities Update (already done for April meeting)
Dan Marsick updated the Committee on DOE’s Nanotechnology/Nanomaterials activities. DOE is developing a policy on nanotechnology at this time. He anticipates the first draft will be completed within the next week. DOE has asked for some guidance from the Field Offices on the development of this policy which is anticipated to be very general in nature. In the 2006 budget is funding for Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to move forward on research that focuses on the health effects from handling nanomaterials.  

Dan participates on the Nanomaterials Environmental and Health Implications Informal Interagency Working Group. The group is developing a list of priorities about what research should be done first on the health and environmental efforts from handling nanomaterials. This group, headed by the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, meets monthly at the National Science Foundation Headquarters. DOE has representatives on the group from the Office of Environment, Safety and Health and the Office of Science. There is a subgroup that is coordinating the research priorities. The group is mainly looking at research for environmental health and safety. The main group encourages positions statements to be given at the meetings by different “regulatory” agencies represented in the group on how they plan to address these issues in the future.  

2005 IH/OS SIG Steering Committee Workshop Planning
Planning continues for the 2005 IH/OS SIG Steering Committee Workshop. One suggestion received for the location of the workshop was to link it to the Annual Professional Conference on Industrial Hygiene PCIH) scheduled for October 22–25, 2005 in Denver , Colorado . Details about that workshop are at: http://www.aiha.org/TheAcademy/html/pcih.htm. Committee members are encouraged to submit suggestions for other conference to consider linking the workshop to in 2005. Committee members agreed that the workshop should be held after October 1 so new travel funds for the sites could be tapped into since FY2005 travel dollars have already been allocated for most Committee members. The only negative impact on a potential workshop would be if the SIG funding is not approved for the new fiscal year.

Future Steering Committee Meeting
The next Steering Committee Conference Call Meeting is scheduled for June 21, 2005, 1:15 – 2:45 EST , conference call number is 301/903-6066.

For additional information, please contact:
Deborah McFalls, IH/OS SIG Coordinator
Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education
P. O. Box 117, MS 10
Oak Ridge, TN 37831-0117