Putting Particularly Hazardous Substances, Exposure Monitoring and Medical Consultation in Place

A how-to course for Chemical Hygiene Officers on three parts of the Laboratory Standard

Every Chemical Hygiene Plan must give extra protection for particularly hazardous substances, decide when exposure is measured and tell people the results, and get a worker to a physician when an exposure may have happened. This course teaches you to put all three in place, with the records they leave.

It is written for Chemical Hygiene Officers in education and in industry. Every lesson teaches one step, then shows it twice, once in a school or district and once in a company or lab. It builds on the rules Science Safety’s NRCC exam prep course teaches as recall, and does not repeat them.

Eight modules, one plan

• Find Your Particularly Hazardous Substances: the three groups, the tests for a select carcinogen, and screening your inventory into a register.
• The Designated Area: choosing a whole lab, part of a lab or a hood, and the signs and access control that go with it.
• Written Procedures and Prior Approval: the written procedure for each risky use, and running an approval request with limits and an end date.
• Containment, Waste and Cleanup: hoods and glove boxes, contaminated and acutely hazardous waste under EPA’s rules, and decontamination.
• Deciding When to Measure: “reason to believe”, action levels, the substance-specific standards, and bringing in an industrial hygienist.
• Telling People the Results: the written notice within 15 working days, and what happens when a result is over the action level.
• Medical Consultation in Practice: the three triggers, the physician’s terms, what the physician must be given, and the written opinion.
• Records That Last 30 Years: what 1910.1450(j) and 1910.1020 require: how long, who may see the records, the yearly notice, and transfers.

Each module ends with a Task, a set of “What you learned” flip cards and a short quiz. Each Task writes one part of your own plan for these substances, monitoring and medical consultation, and the final project puts the parts together as a section of your Chemical Hygiene Plan.