July 2024

CRYSTALLINE SILICA DUST: THE THREAT & PREVENTION

Posted on July 19, 2024 - Dust Collectors, HEPA

For starters, it is important to note that crystalline silica is a mineral found in earth produced materials. These earth materials include, but are not limited to, sand, stone, concrete, and mortar due to the number of silica minerals found within them. Non-earth materials are forged using the crystalline silica mineral. These products include pottery, ceramics, artificial stone, bricks, and glass.

Industries partaking in crushing, grinding, drilling, sawing, and cutting materials such as sand, stone, concrete, mortar, and more are where these particulates become airborne pathogens. When the mass of the material is broken or cut, crystalline silica dust becomes more lethal, as it can be almost 100 times smaller than ordinary sand. Crystalline silica dust is often swept to assist with cleanup, which is a huge mistake as it becomes more lethal while in the air.

Consider your industry and the types of conditions you or your workers are exposed to. If any of these conditions are present, measures must be put in place to protect workers and their future health:

  • Abrasive blasting with sand
  • Manufacturing brick, concrete, or countertops made of stone
  • Cutting or crushing stone
  • Sawing brick or concrete
  • Drilling or sanding into concrete
  • Grinding mortar
  • Industrial sand used in foundry and fracking

OSHA’s whole initiative against crystalline silica dust is to protect the 2.3 million people now exposed to silica at work and to protect those who will be going into an industry that is exposed to silica while on the job. Workers who spend a prolonged amount of time exposed to crystalline silica dust are more prone to being diagnosed with the following diseases:

  • Silicosis – a lung disease that results in disability and death.
  • Lung cancer – which shows symptoms, such as chest pain, wheezing, and weight loss. These symptoms only show themselves when the cancer is advanced.
  • Kidney disease – where fluid builds up in your body and, without treatment, your kidneys can fail to result in death.
  • Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) – begins as flu-like symptoms, but then results in tightness in your chest and needing to catch your breath.

Crystalline silica dust is a threat and will continue to be a threat if industries are cutting, sawing, grinding, drilling, and crushing materials that contain the silica mineral. OSHA outlines standards for construction specifications and all other industries with maritime. These standards should be followed to be compliant, but more importantly, should be followed to protect your workers.

Dust collection systems and industrial vacuums can aid with the cleaning of dust particulates to assist with silicosis prevention. HEPA filtration systems are equipped with silica dust prevention by catching a real number of particulates out of the air, encouraging a healthy breathing area for workers. If your industry is not currently equipped with a dust collector, or HEPA filter, consider the advantages with silicosis and silica dust prevention.

CAN HEPA FILTRATION OF INDOOR SPACES REDUCE VIRUS SPREAD?

Posted on July 19, 2024 - Filters, HEPA

When it comes to virus spread, it is crucial to understand that hospital air filtration equipment is going to significantly help decrease in the spread of particulates from room-to-room. Immune systems are weak, and healthcare workers are on the frontline assisting those who have been compromised. While it is important to protect those individuals, it is also important to protect those that are risking themselves to care for those in the hospital.

The air in hospitals is at an increased risk of containing particulates, which are solid or liquid matter that hangs in the air. Particulates have the potential to aggressively attack the respiratory tract if inhaled. With particulates being a threat in circulating indoor air, indoor air also carries infectious diseases. Hospital air filtration must be equipped with combatting against infectious disease spread, bacteria spread, germ spread, and what is currently going around – virus spread. Therefore, in healthcare facilities and hospitals, HEPA filtration is a weapon that can assist with the decrease of particulate spread.

It is important to note that a High-Efficiency Particulate Air filters, commonly known as HEPA filters are capable of trapping and removing airborne particulates as small as 0.3 microns. This size is known as being smaller than what the naked human eye can see. Hospital HEPA filters will capture 99.97% of all particulates floating through the air, from disease to bacteria, to germ, and many more. These particulates are captured through our dust collection systems by creating a negative pressure within the space. This negative pressure allows any bodily fluids, such as coughs, sneezes, etc. to be trapped in the air and permitted from landing on other surfaces and other people.

Healthcare and hospital facilities are risked with two very prominent airborne threats. Being those biological and inorganic contaminants that enter these facilities via doors leading externally, as well as windows that lead externally. However, with external threats, comes the threat of those contaminants remaining within the facility itself. Endogenous sources are those particulates carried through the air via outside visitors’ breath and touch, personnel’s breath and touch, the clothing is worn by those entering and leaving the facilities, the contaminants remaining on those gifts brought to patients, and the overall supplies & packages brought to continually care for patients. These supplies include, but are not limited to food, masks, equipment, linens, and all other necessary items to feed, care for, and use to treat patients.

Hospital air filtration systems can reduce these airborne threats by taking presence in numerous areas of healthcare and hospital facilities. Hospital HEPA filters should be found in these areas of the facility:

  • Infectious disease and isolation rooms
  • Compounding pharmaceutical & nutraceutical facilities
  • Storage and equipment rooms
  • Testing and research laboratories
  • Operating rooms
  • Treatment and testing rooms
  • Areas where critical procedures are currently being performed

Industrial Vacuum Equipment is currently helping hospitals during this challenging time, and we want to continue to help. If your healthcare facilities and hospitals are not currently using a HEPA filter, or an industrial dust collection system to assist with this HEPA filtration initiative, you may want to consider contacting us.

Our team is equipped with the knowledge to explain the three phases of HEPA filtration, as well as enable your healthcare facility to have a proper air filtration system. We share your goal to protect patients and those on the front line. Contact us today to learn more about how a HEPA filtration equipment and our industrial dust collection systems will protect the spread of particulates throughout your hospital and healthcare facilities.

Product Recommendations & Application Page Reference:

BERYLLIUM DUST’S THREAT TO FOUNDRY WORKERS: HOW TO COMPLY WITH OSHA

Posted on July 19, 2024 - Beryllium Control, OSHA

How dangerous is Beryllium dust?

Because beryllium has a high toxicity level, not controlling beryllium dust can lead to issues originating in the lungs. Foundry workers inhale this costly chemical when too much beryllium dust resides in the air. As a result, workers are at risk of a common disease: Berylliosis.

Berylliosis, a disorder of the lungs that can eventually lead to other organs, is a respiratory disease caused by beryllium dust that has been fatal in roughly 20% of all cases. In addition to berylliosis, Chronic Beryllium Disease can occur in workers that are allergic to beryllium dust. As a result of Chronic Beryllium Disease (or CBD for short), workers will experience breathing problems, weakness, tiredness, and potentially lead to anorexia and blueness of the hands and feet.

Because of the toll beryllium dust exposure has on the human body, it’s become a high priority for OSHA to give correct safety standards. OSHA has their Beryllium Rule that foundries must follow to meet requirements and protect workers.

Complying with OSHA’s Beryllium Dust Rule

To be compliant with OSHA’s Beryllium standards, foundry managers must complete the following:

Create a written beryllium dust exposure control plan:

1. Establish a written exposure control plan that has:

  • A list of job titles and working duties reasonably expected to involve airborne exposure or skin contact with beryllium, involve airborne exposure at or above the action level and involve airborne exposure above the TWA, PEL, or STEL.
  • Specific rules that lower cross-contamination of beryllium between surfaces, clothing, materials, equipment, and articles within work environments containing beryllium
  • Specific rules for keeping surfaces as free as possible of beryllium
  • Specific rules used for minimizing the spread of beryllium from work areas to other locations within or outside the work environment
  • A list of required work practices, engineering controls, and respiratory protection
  • A list of required personal protective equipment and clothing
  • Specific rules for the removal of laundering, storing, repairing, disposing, and cleaning of beryllium-contaminated protective clothing and equipment

2. Review and Evaluate the effectiveness of the exposure control plan annually and update it as necessary when:

  • Production processes, materials, equipment, people, work practices, or control methods change
  • Notify the employer if an employee is eligible for medical removal due to established standard, referred for evaluation, or shows signs or symptoms of beryllium exposure
  • The employer believes new or added airborne exposure can or is occurring

3. Provide a copy of the written exposure control plan for each employee who is or can reasonably be exposed to airborne beryllium

Engineering and beryllium dust work practice controls

1. Employers must use engineering and work practice controls to cut and maintain employee airborne exposure to beryllium to or below the PEL and STEL. Implementing one of the following, you will cut airborne exposure:

  • Material and/or process substitution
  • Isolation like ventilated partial or full enclosures
  • Local exhaust ventilation
  • Process control like wet methods and automation

2. The employer is exempt from using controls of this standard only if the employer can set up such controls are not possible or can prove that airborne exposure is below the action level

Prohibition of rotation

1. The employer is not allowed to rotate employees to different jobs to achieving compliance with PELs

For full details on beryllium safety and being compliance, visit the beryllium dust exposure compliance guide. Contact us to learn about how an industrial vacuüm can help enhance the safety of your facilities.

Industrial Vacuum is showed at the CastExpo 2019 event in Atlanta, Georgia April 27th-30th. At our booth, we educated employers on how to become beryllium dust compliant.

5 REASONS TO CONSIDER THE 20,000 CFM DIESEL TUNNEL VENTILATION BLOWER SYSTEM

Posted on July 19, 2024 - Ventilation Blowers

Construction and industrial environments are known to produce inadequate air quality. Job sites that are enclosed to any degree, such as elevator shafts and tunnel ventilation systems during construction, are at a high risk of air quality being jeopardized because of the lack of fresh air naturally circulating in. With the OSHA’s General Duty Clause, it’s imperative that employers enhance the quality of air in which their employees spend hours working.

The General Duty Clause requires employers to provide workers with a workplace that’s safe and does not have any hazards that can or have caused serious injury or death. Tunnel ventilation systems during construction are one source of poor air quality. Other poor air quality spaces should have the necessary resources in place to identify and control indoor or enclosed air quality to not only comply with OSHA’s standards but protect workers.

In an effort to help businesses and contractors comply with OSHA’s standards, take control of tough work environments and protect their employees as well as themselves, we engineered the 20,000 CFM tunnel ventilation system to use during construction. From application to application, here are five reasons you should consider adding this centrifugal blower to your fleet.

1: Industry-leading Standard Options and Optional Add-ons

When the need to comply with air quality standards cannot compromise efficiency and low noise output, the 20K tunnel ventilation system during construction is the solution. This diesel-only industrial blower fan comes equipped with steel construction that has a single point lift eye, a 7,000lb single torsion axle, and a 99-gallon fuel tank. The standard features offered make this machine perform like a true workhorse. Additional options can be included to cater to the needs of the job. Options such as the quiet sound package, explosion-proof motor and controls, and emergency air shutoff valves increase performance while reducing safety concerns.

2: Transporting Directly to the Job Site is Easy

A pintle-styled, DOT-approved trailer comes included with the 20K tunnel Blower Ventilation system during construction. This makes transporting and placement quick and convenient. Features like electric brakes and an epoxy primer and a polyurethane enamel topcoat protect your investment during travel. Lastly, being that it’s 153” in length, towing behind a qualified vehicle is a breeze.

3: Protecting Your Workers from Air-Related Health Risks

It’s obvious that employee health should always remain first priority. But improving the quality of air in which they work does more than just reduce potential health factors. Sufficient air quality leads to an increase in productivity, efficiency, and final results. When workers aren’t being affected by poor air, they’re able to work to their potential, perform their jobs correctly and finish the job well.

4: The Applications Are Endless

The 20K tunnel ventilation blower isn’t confined to only a handful of applications. Industries such as the construction, industrial, and mining industries as well as applications including tunnels, vineyards, and elevator shafts benefit significantly from proper ventilation. Any job site that is confined to a tight space where air quality can be compromised meets the requirements for our ventilation blower. Ducting and hose accessories can be included for harder-to-reach spaces.

5: Built to Stand the Test of Time

Our new industrial centrifugal tunnel ventilation system during the construction blower is constructed to endure the harshest environments over and over again. Its heavy-duty steel construction weighs in at 4,800lbs and is built with rugged components that keep ventilating use after use. There isn’t an atmosphere the 20K Diesel Blower isn’t built for, and you can expect quality results with every operation.

Check out the article “Introducing the 20,000 CFM Diesel Ventilation Blower” for additional information or visit the product page for images, options, and specification sheets. If you’re looking to take the next step in acquiring this workhorse, contact us today!

HOW HEPA FILTERS WORK

Posted on June 19, 2024 - Filters, HEPA

High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters that are true to the standard are capable of trapping and removing airborne particulates as small as 0.3 microns. That’s smaller than the human eye can physically see. True HEPA filters are known by the fact that they’re able to capture 99.97% of all particles. Even the most dangerous particles can be stopped in their tracks due to how their designed to perform.

Fibers are the bread and butter in capturing and trapping dust particles. There are three stages that HEPA filter fibers can stop particles in their tracks.

Stage 1 – Impact: Most of the dust particles that are sucked into a HEPA filter crash into filter fibers and are trapped by impact. Fibers are capable of holding dust particles completely, resulting in very little particles making their way through.

Stage 2 – Interception: As dust particles move throughout a HEPA filter, the airstream caused by the vacuum enables particles to get too close to a nearby fiber, stopping them in their tracks. This is referred to as interception.

Stage 3 – Diffusion: In vacuums that output lower speed airstreams, dust and air particles can crash into one another. This results in being redirected to nearby filter fibers. This is referred to as diffusion.

Because HEPA filters are designed to capture dust particles in multiple ways, this eliminates the risk of particles making their way out – resulting in 99.97% being captured. With an industrial HEPA vacuum built to perform at that level, your workers will be protected from silica dust, beryllium and whatever other airborne dust particles may be present at your job site.

Vactagon Vacuums with True HEPA Filtration

Offering both drum top and explosion proof vacuums with true HEPA filtration options, our Vactagon line will keep your workers safe – no matter the application. Partner with Industrial Vacuum in protecting your workers by browsing our industrial HEPA vacuums online. For further information about how our industrial vacuums with true HEPA filtration work, contact us today.