Introduction/Administrative News
The TRADE Industrial Hygiene/Occupational Safety Special Interest Group (IH/OS SIG) Steering Committee met on November 20, 2007 through a conference call meeting. IH/OS SIG Steering Committee Chair Ralph Hinterman, Argonne National Laboratory, facilitated the meeting in which the following Steering Committee members participated:
Deana Colley, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory,
Bill Frede, Honeywell FM&T,+
Ralph Hinterman, Argonne National Laboratory,
Daniel Marsick, DOE, HS-11, Office of Worker Safety and Health Policy,
Deborah McFalls, Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE), and
David Weitzman, HS-11, Office of Worker Safety and Health Policy.
The following IH/OS SIG Steering Committee members notified the IH/OS SIG Coordinator that they could not participate in the meeting:
Michael Hurshman, S.M. Stoller,
Bob Kapolka, ORISE, and
Rob Nicholas, Los Alamos National Laboratory.
DOE Nanotechnology Safety and Health News
Dan Marsick reported that DOE is still working on resolving comments from the IG report. The IG report wants DOE to extend the “Department of Energy Nanoscale Science Research Centers Approach to Nanomaterals ES&H” guidance document for the five DOE Centers to all departments within DOE. However, not all within DOE necessary agrees with this request. According to Dan, HSS would like to see the guidelines extended to all within DOE since there are work related activities with nanomaterials occurring within DOE at places other than the Research Centers.
It was reported that Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has developed some training related to nanomaterial activities. Ralph Hinterman reported that he has reviewed the ORNL materials which he thought was good basic materials for that area of interest. Ralph reported that Argonne was going to put together some training materials for their site based on the outline of ORNL’s training materials.
The Federal Interagency Committee that Dan Marsick participates on for DOE is still working on the Nanotechnology ES&H Research Guidelines document.
Dan Marsick reported that a conference/workshop hosted by the five DOE Nanoscale Science Research Centers may occur in the spring of 08 at the Argonne site.
10 CFR 851News David Weitzman reported that the Draft revision of Occupational Medicine section of G 440.1-8 “Implementation Guide for use with 10 CFR 851 Worker Safety and Health Program” was updated November 16. The Office of Worker Safety and Health Policy, HS-11 provided its latest understanding of acceptable implementation practices in this guidance. This guidance is a working draft of an eventual revision of the section of G 440.1-8 dealing with 10 CFR 851, Appendix A, Section 8 “Occupational medicine.” This guidance is subject to change. The Office of General Counsel (OGC) currently is researching issues upon which is based some of the guidance. HS-11 may change that guidance when OGC’s final position on these issues becomes available. HS-11 continues to seek new and better implementation information from interactions with Program Offices and Field Elements and will enhance this guidance when significant new information becomes available. Comments or input on this draft can be sent to David at: david.weitzman@hq.doe.gov. The draft revision can be found at: http://www.hss.energy.gov/HealthSafety/WSHP/rule851/851final.html.
General Safety/Health Discussion
Argonne had an independent assessment of their confined space program earlier in the year and one of the items to come from the assessment was a push to provide retraining to everyone working in confined space areas. At this time retraining is only required if job duties or hazards have changed or if a review of the program indicates there are problems with training issues. During the process of putting together the new retraining, Ralph became aware of a quadruple death of workers occurring in a confined space in Superior, Wisconsin within the last 2-3 weeks. It was the typical situation where one person goes in the confined space and then others going in after the one already in when it appears that are problems. Argonne went online and got additional information from a local newspaper about the deaths to use in a Windows video clip as part of the new training they are developing. Ralph is willing to share this information with other Steering Committee members with the understanding that Argonne has given credit to the newspaper for the photographs but has not obtained formal approved to use the photos. Deana Colley requested a copy of the video for her site.
Joint EFCOG/DOE Chemical Management
Dan Marsick reported that the Joint EFCOG/DOE Chemical Management Workshop was going to be held March 4-6, 2008 at the DOE Forrestal Headquarters Auditorium in Washington, DC. Information about the workshop can be found at: www.hss.energy.gov/HealthSafety/WSHP/chem_safety/ws2008/.
Future Steering Committee Conference Call Meeting
The next Steering Committee meeting is scheduled for January 22, 2008, 1:15 – 2:45 pm EST, conference call number 301/903-9164.
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
David Weitzman reported that the Draft revision of Occupational Medicine section of G 440.1-8 “Implementation Guide for use with 10 CFR 851 Worker Safety and Health Program” was updated November 16. The Office of Worker Safety and Health Policy, HS-11 provided its latest understanding of acceptable implementation practices in this guidance. This guidance is a working draft of an eventual revision of the section of G 440.1-8 dealing with 10 CFR 851, Appendix A, Section 8 “Occupational medicine.” This guidance is subject to change. The Office of General Counsel (OGC) currently is researching issues upon which is based some of the guidance. HS-11 may change that guidance when OGC’s final position on these issues becomes available. HS-11 continues to seek new and better implementation information from interactions with Program Offices and Field Elements and will enhance this guidance when significant new information becomes available. Comments or input on this draft can be sent to David at: 