WAC 296-856-400 Exposure Control Areas

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YOUR RESPONSIBILITY:

To control employee exposure to airborne formaldehyde and protect employees by using appropriate respirators

IMPORTANT:

• These sections apply when employee exposure monitoring results are above the permissible exposure limit (PEL):
  • – The 8-hour time-weighted average (TWA₈) of 0.75 parts per million (ppm)
  • or
  • – The 15-minute short-term exposure limit (STEL) of 2 parts per million (ppm).

WAC 296-856-40010

Exposure controls

IMPORTANT:

Respirators and other personal protective equipment (PPE) are not exposure controls.

You must

• Use feasible exposure controls to reduce employee exposures to a level below the permissible exposure limit (PEL) or to as low a level as achievable.

WAC 296-856-40020

Establishing exposure control areas

You must

• Establish temporary or permanent exposure control areas where airborne concentrations of formaldehyde are above either the 8-hour time weighted average (TWA₈) or the 15-minute short-term exposure limit (STEL), by doing at least the following:
  • – Clearly identify the boundaries of exposure control areas in any way that minimizes employee access.
  • – Post signs at access points to exposure control areas that:
    • Are easy to read (for example, they are kept clean and well lit)
      and
    • Include this warning:

You must

• Allow only employees, who have been trained to recognize the hazards of formaldehyde exposure, to enter exposure control areas.

You must

• Inform other employers at multi-employer work sites of the exposure control areas, and the restrictions that apply to those areas.

WAC 296-856-40030

Respirators

IMPORTANT:

• The requirements in this section are in addition to the requirements found in the following separate chapters:
  • – Airborne contaminants, Chapter 296-841 WAC.
  • – Respirators, Chapter 296-842 WAC.
• Medical evaluations meeting all requirements of Medical and emergency evaluations, WAC 296-856-30020, will fulfill the medical evaluations requirements found in Respirators, Chapter 296-842 WAC, a separate chapter.

You must

• Develop, implement, and maintain a respirator program as required by chapter Chapter 296-842 WAC, Respirators.
• - Require that employees use respirators in any of the following circumstances:
  • Employees are in an exposure control area.
  • Feasible exposure controls are being put in place.
  • Where you determine that exposure controls aren’t feasible
  • Feasible exposure controls don’t reduce exposures to, or below, the PEL.
  • Employees are performing tasks presumed to have exposures above the PEL.
  • Emergencies.
• Select, and provide to employees, appropriate respirators as specified in this section and in WAC 296-842-13005 in the respirator rule.
• Equip full-facepiece air-purifying respirators with cartridges or canisters approved for protection against formaldehyde.
• Provide to employees, for escape, one of the following respirator options:

- A self-contained breathing apparatus operated in demand or pressure-demand mode;

or

- A full-facepiece air-purifying respirator equipped with a chin-style, or front-or-back-mounted industrial size canister or cartridge.

• Make sure all air-purifying respirator use is accompanied by eye protection either through the use of full-facepiece models, or effective, gas-proof chemical goggles.
• Provide employees with powered air-purifying respirators (PAPRs) when:

  – The employee has difficulty using a negative presssure respirator or a LHCP recommends this type of respirator;
  and

  – The employee chooses to use this type of respirator.

• Replace the chemical cartridges or canisters on air-purifying respirators:

  – When indicated by NIOSH-approved, end-of-service life indicators if these are used;
  or

  – When NIOSH-approved ESLIs aren't used:

  • At times specified by your cartridge change schedule;

    or

  • At the end of the work shift, when this occurs before the time indicated by your cartridge change schedule.