If you are an environment, health, and safety (EHS) manager in any number of industries, you likely face the ongoing task of dealing with solvents in your workplace. Today we will offer tips for protecting your workers from exposure to solvents.
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Solvents, which are usually liquids, are used to dissolve other materials. They are used in a variety of applications across a number of industries. Common uses of solvents include:
- Industrial cleaning and degreasing
- Corrosion removal
- Fats and oil extraction
- Dry cleaning
- Paint thinning and coating
- Fabric scouring
- Auto and airplane manufacturing and maintenance
Common solvents used in workplaces include alcohol, turpentine, acetone, formaldehyde, toluene, methylene chloride, and trichloroethylene. There are many others.
There are many solvents, each of which has a different use—and hazard. But there are a number of general hazards as well as precautionary measures that will help your workers handle them safely. If you use solvents in your facility, here are some tried-and-true ways to protect your workers from exposure to these chemicals.
Inventory Control
As an EHS manager, one of the best options is to reduce the use of hazardous solvents. When possible, replace hazardous solvents with water-based cleaning methods, waterless cleaners, or mineral spirits. Check the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Safer Choice project for less hazardous alternatives. The Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) also offers a toolkit to help facilities transition to safer chemicals.
You can also encourage workers to reduce the amount of solvents used by:
- Using any solvent completely, until it has lost its ability to clean; and
- Minimizing loss to evaporation by keeping containers closed when not in use and by keeping solvents in containers whose exposed surface area is as small as possible.
Identify Hazards
All your workers who handle solvents should be trained to identify hazards by reading the safety data sheet (SDS) if available and/or any labels that accompany the product. If there is no label or if the label is incomplete or damaged, it should be immediately reported. Even if your workers feel sure that they know what is in the container, everyone should consider it an unacceptable risk to use an unlabeled substance.
Control Exposure
Two ways to control your workers’ exposure to solvents are ventilation and proper personal protective equipment (PPE).
Proper ventilation is key in preventing solvent vapors from building up to dangerous concentrations. Before handling solvents, your workers should be trained to make sure that the ventilation equipment is working and to report any problems immediately.
PPE can prevent skin or eye contact with solvents and can prevent dangerous inhalation. The SDS will tell you what kind of protective clothing is needed to protect workers from an individual solvent’s hazards.
For those working with solvents, PPE will likely include:
- Splashproof goggles and face shields
- Gloves
- Impervious clothes or aprons
Since it’s particularly dangerous to inhale some solvents, your workers may have to wear respirators. Careful selection and fit-testing are essential for a respirator to give the necessary protection.
General Safety Tips
Your workers should be trained to prevent indirect exposure to solvents by following these general safety tips:
- Don’t eat, drink, smoke, or apply cosmetics in an area that contains solvents.
- Don’t leave food or beverages, mugs, or utensils in solvent work or storage areas.
- Don’t wash with solvents. They may do an effective cleaning job, but they can also harm skin.
- Wash thoroughly after handling solvents.
- Don’t wear contact lenses when working with solvents—they can trap fumes.
- Remove contaminated PPE carefully to avoid spreading the solvent to skin, street clothes, or clean parts of the facility.
Need some help to round out your training program? Check Safety.BLR.com® for hundreds of training tips and tools to keep your workers safe in your facility.