Wood preservation facilities, general recommendations: chapter A, table 26


Table 26. Recommended Routine Workplace Monitoring (All Preservatives)

Item Recommendations
Authority/reporting
  • Develop a facility-specific plan, preferably in consultation with the provincial/regional workers’ compensation board or industrial hygienist/physician.
  • Define reporting formats and requirements.
Contact exposure
  • Identify existing and potential sources of skin exposure by periodic walk-through inspections.
Air inhalation exposure
  • Define an initial indoor monitoring program (e.g. sampling techniques, frequency of sampling), preferably in consultation with the regulatory agency responsible for worker safety.
  • For the purpose of defining worker health protection measures, provide an initial evaluation of peak and average levels of preservative constituents in air at significant points of worker exposure. Include areas such as
    • cylinder or kiln doors (openings);
    • all enclosed preservative process areas; and
    • areas adjacent to freshly treated wood storage.
  • Provide for subsequent monitoring,
  • Make personal samplers available for spot monitoring (as required)

Biological monitoring

(Section 6.4)

  • Conduct initial screening medical exams to establish an initial baseline of the employee’s health and then used to monitor their future health as it pertains to potential occupational exposures to hazardous agents.
  • Define a schedule for
    • medical exams to confirm the absence of symptoms or signs of exposure to preservative constituents; and
    • biological monitoring of workers for preservative constituents (e.g. arsenic concentration in urine).
  • Consult BEI from ACGIH

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