Labor & Industries (L&I), Washington State

Hazardous Waste Operations Chapter 296-843, WAC

Effective Date: 05/01/04

Sampling and Monitoring WAC 296-843-130

For printing

Your responsibility:

To conduct monitoring for health and safety hazards to protect employees

You must

Conduct monitoring for health and safety hazards during initial site entry	WAC 296-843-13005
Evaluate employee exposure to hazardous substances during clean-up operations	WAC 296-843-13010

WAC 296-843-13005
Conduct monitoring for health and safety hazards during initial site entry

You must

• Make visual observations of the site to detect signs of actual or potential immediately dangerous to life or health (IDLH) or other dangerous conditions.
• Conduct representative air monitoring with direct reading test equipment, when the preliminary site evaluation doesn’t eliminate the potential for ionizing radiation or IDLH conditions.
• Assess the following:
  • – Potential IDLH conditions
  • – Exposure over radioactive material dose limits
  • – Potential exposure over permissible exposure limits (PELs) or other published exposure levels
  • – Other dangerous conditions, such as the presence of flammable or oxygen-deficient atmospheres.

Reference: See WAC 296-62-09004, Ionizing Radiation, for additional information about radioactive material dose limits.

WAC 296-843-13010
Evaluate employee exposure to hazardous substances during clean-up operations

IMPORTANT:

The clean-up operation begins when soil, surface water, or containers are moved or disturbed.

You must

• Identify the type of personnel monitoring and environmental sampling you plan to use, including instrumentation.
• Include requirements for maintaining and calibrating the monitoring and sampling instruments used.
• Monitor whenever employees may be exposed to concentrations exceeding PELs or other published exposure levels.
• Evaluate employees who are likely to have the highest exposure:
  • – Monitor all employees who are likely to have the highest exposure to hazardous substances or health hazards above the PEL or published exposure limit
  • – Use personal sampling frequently enough to characterize the exposures of these employees.
    • When results indicate exposure is over the PEL or other published exposure level, identify all employees likely to be above the PEL or published exposure limit.

Note: You may use a representative sampling approach by documenting that the employees and chemicals chosen for monitoring are representative of both: Employee exposure to hazardous substances and Employees not sampled.

You must

• Conduct monitoring when the possibility of one of the following exists:
  • – An atmosphere that’s immediately dangerous to life or health (IDLH)
    or
  • – A flammable atmosphere
    or
  • – Employee exposures exceeding PELs or other published exposure levels.

Examples of situations where these possibilities may exist:

– Work begins on a different portion of the site

– Contaminants other than those previously monitored are being handled

– A different type of site operation starts, such as moving from drum opening to exploratory well drilling

– Handling leaking drums or containers

– Working in areas with obvious liquid contamination such as a spill or lagoon

– Time has passed and employee exposure levels may have significantly increased.