Health Concerns and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Use in Roadway Construction

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Health Concerns and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Use in Roadway Construction

Brent Doney, MS, MPH, CIH
304-285-6357
bdoney@cdc.gov
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

Intertraffic North America 2007
October 11, 2007

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Outline

  1. Focus Groups
  2. Bureau of Labor Statistics/National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Survey of Respirator Use and Practices
  3. Onsite Observation of PPE Use and Practices
  4. Request for Participants
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Highway, Street, and Bridge Construction

2006 Bureau of Labor Statistics data:

  • Number of workers:  360,000
  • Location of work:  all states
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Picture of a man driving a construction vehicle

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Respiratory Hazards

Respirators help protect against inhaled dusts and fumes which pose hazards to U.S. workers

Example: crystalline silica

  • 12% of silicosis deaths in construction (select states and years; 1985–1999)
  • ~48,000 workers in construction were exposed over the NIOSH Recommended Exposure Limit (1993)

Sources:

  1. NIOSH, National Occupational Respiratory Mortality System (NORMS)
  2. Linch et al. JOEM 1998
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NIOSH Work on Respiratory Protection in Roadway Construction

Focus Groups:

  • Small group discussions
  • Free response to directed questions
  • Led by a moderator
  • Focused on specific topics
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Focus Group Objectives

To identify:

  • Airborne hazards
  • Control measures for airborne hazards
  • Barriers to respirator use
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Focus Groups: 3 Sectors of Construction

  • Road/Transportation — American Road and Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA)
  • Painting — Society for Protective Coatings
  • Demolition — National Demolition Association
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ARTBA Focus Group Results: Types of Work

  • Abrasive blasting
  • Asphalt plants
  • Bridge rehabilitation
  • Culverts
  • Milling
  • Paving
  • Quarries
  • Road bed preparation
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Picture of a man wearing a mask driving a paving machine

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ARTBA Focus Group Results: Airborne Hazards

  • Asphalt fumes
  • Asphalt additives including fly ash
  • Concrete dust and silica
  • Diesel and gasoline (vapors and engine emissions)
  • Hydrogen sulfide
  • Lead (paint on bridges)
  • Paint vapors
  • Welding fumes
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ARTBA Focus Group Results:  Exposure Control Methods

  • Abrasive blasting substitutes
  • Closed cabs
  • Local ventilation with drills and on paving machines
  • Fans or natural air movement
  • Water spray
  • Respiratory protection
    • Only a secondary preventive measure (hazard control comes first)
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ARTBA Focus Group Results: Reported Barriers to Respirator Use

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Respirator Use & Design Factors

  • Comfort
    • High ambient temperatures — sweating, heat stress with other PPE (e.g., face shields, goggles, reflective vests)
    • Lack of comfort
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Respirator Use & Design Factors

  • Vision
    • Fogging of facepiece and safety glasses
    • Difficulty wearing safety glasses with respirators
    • Visual obstruction from respirator (hoods)
  • Communication
    • Low quality respirator speaking diaphragms (break seal to talk)
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Industry/Worksite Factors

  • High worker turnover
    • Train workers
    • Fit test
    • Medically evaluate
  • Short duration of projects makes it difficult to:
    • Air monitor
  • Proper storage and cleaning facilities sometimes not available (makes it difficult to maintain respirators)
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Management Factors

  • Respirator programs are costly — training and medical evaluation
  • Worker turnover makes companies reluctant to train workers
  • Difficult to enforce proper respirator use
  • Perception of lack of management and supervisor commitment in some companies
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Worker Factors

  • Non-English speakers
  • Lack of knowledge of respirator importance
  • Lack of worker commitment
  • Low educational level of some workers
  • Facial hair
  • Smokers
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Picture of a man doing abrasive blasting

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Bureau of Labor Statistics/NIOSH Survey of Respirator Use and Practices

  • Purpose: Collect information on respirator use and practices to guide NIOSH respirator certification and research
  • Time: 2001–2002
  • Surveyed: ~40,000 establishments in the 50 states and District of Columbia
  • Covered all industry (except public sector, self-employed, and agriculture establishments with ≤10 workers)
  • Response rate: 76%

Source: Respirator Usage in Private Sector Firms, 2001. BLS/NIOSH
http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/respsurv/pdfs/respsurv2001.pdf

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Indicators of Inadequate Respirator Programs

  1. Lack of a trained respirator program administrator
  2. Lack of written procedures for maintaining respirators
  3. No provision to fit test wearers of tight-fitting respirators
  4. Failure to assess employees’ medical fitness to wear respirators
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Indicators of Inadequate Respirator Programs

  1. Lack of a written respirator program to determine how respirators are used
  2. Lack of  training regarding the need, use, limitations, and capabilities of respirators
  3. Lack of written procedures to periodically evaluate the effectiveness of respirators used
  4. Failure to assure that airline respirator couplings are incompatible with other gas systems
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Indicators of Inadequate Respirator Programs

  1. Failure to use the proper procedures to adjust the airflow for airline respirators
  2. Lack of written change-out schedule for air-  purifying gas/vapor filters
  3. Use dust masks to protect against gases or vapors
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Indicators of Inadequate Respirator Programs

The bar chart displays number of indicators for All industry, Construction, and Heavy construction except buildings with Number of Indicators on the X-Axis and Percent of Respirators Using Establishments on Y-Axis. The data shows more than half of the heavy construction employers had at least three indicators of a potentially inadequate respiratory protection program.

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Observation of Respirator Use at ARTBA Companies

  • Companies focus more on safety hazards than on health hazards
  • Companies are using water and substitution to reduce health hazards
  • Companies have safety meetings, some daily
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Observation of Respirator Use at ARTBA Companies

Problem areas:

  • Insufficient air monitoring to determine need for respiratory protection
  • Employee turnover
  • Non-English speakers
  • Beards
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How YOU can help!

Image of a man on the top reaching out to help the man on the way up

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NIOSH Project Needs 30 “small” Roadway Construction Companies

  • No more than 150 employees in each company
  • Two or more workers use respirators at least five days/year
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What is Expected of the 30 Companies?

  • Willing to have NIOSH industrial hygienist (IH) visit worksites twice in a two month period (each visit generally about a day or less)
  • NIOSH IH will speak with foremen and workers, in addition to management
  • NIOSH IH will offer advice regarding improvements in respiratory protection
  • Management need only consider the advice
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Benefits for Participating Companies

  • NIOSH IH will suggest interventions and provide materials to remedy shortfalls in PPE programs
  • Participation demonstrates to employees that management is interested in their protection
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General Benefits of NIOSH Project

  • Feedback on the usefulness of suggested interventions
  • Interventions thought to be useful would be considered for nationwide distribution to all roadway construction companies
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How Can a Company Volunteer?

  • I will be available today after this session and tomorrow to discuss your participation
  • After tomorrow, I can be contacted at:
  • Jerry Teeler (ARTBA) is also available to speak to you about our needs today and later
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Quality Partnerships Enhance Worker Safety & Health

Pictures of workers wearing respirators

Visit NPPTL at: http//www.cdc.gov/niosh/npptl

The findings and conclusions in this presentation have not been formally disseminated by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and should not be construed to represent any agency determination or policy.

Thank you

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