The ANILINE ENVIRONMENTAL Newsletter
 | Web Site Rebuild, providing better content for our clients and visitors. |
| OhioEPA Inspections, new emphasis on Used Oil and Universal Wastes. |
| Company Safety Plans, an essential tool to keep your company in compliance. |
| Lock Out / Tag Out - practical advice on the OSHA standard.. |
| ANABEC SYSTEMS & Caliwel PAINT render safe toxic mold and fungus. |
| BIOLOGICAL HAZARDS, dealing with infectious agents, anthrax is a common hazard in agricultural products processing -- and therein lies the true threat. |
The ANILINE ENVIRONMENTAL web site is undergoing a total rebuild over the next few months to provide better content for our clients and visitors. We are going to be working on the site a little bit each day to vastly improve it to be more useful. The EnviroKnowHow.Com site will have more useful products, with product user guides each month. The IHKnowHow.Com site will feature more new publications and technical reports, too.
To be honest this web site is not the primary focus of our business, service to our clients is. Over the past two years even our most die hard "I'll never get a computer, Steve!" clients have purchased computers and are connected to the net. To this end, even though this web site is a quantum leap ahead of our, competitors, visitors will see regular improvements.
We invite your criticisms and comments to make a better site where people can get good information about industrial hygiene, safety, and the environment.
Steven R. Pressman, President - ANILINE ENVIRONMENTAL
P.S. I thank all our clients and associates for their support over the last fifteen years.
Agents of the OhioEPA, NE Ohio, Twinsburg Office have inspected several of our client facilities over the past few months. The OhioEPA's primary concerns have been the management of used oil and the control of universal wastes, which include mercury bearing fluorescent light tubes and batteries. OhioEPA Fact Sheets on these topics can be found at the following links:
| The Regulation of Used Oil: An Overview for Ohio Business |
| Universal Waste Rule |
A Fact Sheet for those who want to find out about burning used oil for fuel may be found at:
| The Regulation of Used Oil: Used Oil Burners |
As always we here at ANILINE ENVIRONMENTAL recommend the following measures, before agents of the OhioEPA arrive:
| Inspect your premises for litter, leaks, and illegal dumping by others on a daily basis. |
| Inspect all drains on the premises daily. They may need clearing, dikes, or sealing as necessary. |
| Inspect liquid production and waste materials, and also, your spill control kit and equipment daily. And don't forget to log your inspections. |
| Clean up any spilled materials, hazardous or non-hazardous. Even non-hazardous materials can cause environmental damage and liability. |
| Repair any cracks in drives and parking lots that may allow infiltration of spilled materials. |
| Do not allow broken pallets, waste paper, or other flammable materials to accumulate. Fire kills businesses. |
| Sell accumulated scrap metal regularly. The space it takes up gets in the way of production and the money it brings in is always nice. |
The ANILINE ENVIRONMENTAL writing staff is in the process of completing the first draft model Company Safety & Environmental Management Program document. This new style of safety plan for industry is intended to facilitate the transition of manufacturers and construction firms to the new ILO-OSH 2001occupational safety and health management system standard and the OSHA 29 CFR 1900.1 Draft Proposed Safety and Health Program Rule, as well as the ISO 14001 Environmental management system.
The ANILINE ENVIRONMENTAL Company Safety & Environmental Management Program is designed to be useful to all members of large and small organizations. The program document achieves this by using plan language, avoiding verbosity, and being specific. The document catalogs each industrial hygiene, safety, and environmental requirement placed upon a business and then provides specific actions necessary to satisfy each requirement.
The ANILINE ENVIRONMENTAL Company Safety & Environmental Management Program provides the who, what where, when, why and how about complicated safety and environmental compliance tasks. This includes often sticky issues, such as, documenting negative reports or discontinuing reports to the EPA. The document gives the tasks to be performed and the resources to do the job in the space of one page. In designing this safety program document detailed section dividers were prepared, as well as a detailed table of contents and index, to assure that any information sought is quickly found.
ANILINE ENVIRONMENTAL Company Safety & Environmental Management Program is currently available as a customized publication for your organization. A generic electronic version will be included in the coming book from The ANILINE Press A Perfect Safety Plan, How to write your Company's Safety & Environmental Management Program Manual, which will be available the first quarter of 2004.
In recent months ANILINE ENVIRONMENTAL safety trainers have included more practical instruction on the nature of electricity and the mechanisms of how electrocution kills to our Lock Out / Tag Out class. Every year many workers are killed or injured by electricity. Most Lock Out / Tag Out training emphasizes the control measures required by OSHA 29 CFR 1910.147 The Control of Hazardous Energy, and does not go into specific workplace hazards in depth. In most workplaces, especially factories and construction sites electrocution and falls are high on the list of hazards. The new electrical safety topics added include:
| Physiological effects of electricity. |
| Difference between direct and alternating current. |
| The effect of sweating on the resistance of the human body. |
| The dangers from ground loops and ground faults. |
| Proper grounding techniques. |
| Using ground fault interrupters (GFIs) and electrical protective gloves and boots. |
| How to inspect electrical extension cords, power tools, and other electric equipment. |
The NIOSH report WORKER DEATHS BY ELECTROCUTION A Summary of Surveillance Findings and Investigative Case Reports, NIOSH Pub. No. 98-131, May 1998 gives a good overview of this important hazard in the workplace. This report notes that fatalities are lead in construction, with manufacturing not being a close second. It can be thought that in construction the workplace changes on a daily basis. From our experience we know that construction sites require constant supervision and regular testing of GFIs and other electrical safety devices.
The EnviroKnowHow.Com products division of ANILINE ENVIRONMENTAL is now a full line distributor of ANABEC™ mold remediation products. These include ANABEC cleaner disinfectant, Bio-Shield, and X-70 water based acrylic anti-mold coating, which is available in clear or colored blue-green to prove application. The ANABEC cleaner disinfectant can penetrate to kill mold through on half inch of wallboard. This system is meant to remediate critical areas that are closed, damp, and poorly ventilated with minimal demolition. The ANABEC system is applied by licensed contractor's who gain a number of benefits to include a three day application training seminar with their first purchase of 16, 5 Gallon containers, which is enough product to treat 40,000 square feet.
The products division has successfully marketed Alistagen Corporation's Caliwel™anti-mold paint to the mold remediation trade for the past few months. Caliwel is warranted to prevent mold growth for six years. Caliwel is VOC free and comes in ten beautiful interior colors. This is applied over Caliwel Surface Prep 100% acrylic primer. Also, available is Caliwel industrial for cellars crawlspaces and plenums. Building occupants report that their rooms are both cooler and fresher smelling with Caliwel. Caliwel can be applied by mold remediation contractors, painters, or home owners.
We expect several new products in the Caliwel paint line by next year, these include Caliwel paint in gloss and eggshell finishes and Caliwel HVAC for inside air ducts, which will be available in a VOC free water based version and a solvent based formulation where maximum adhesion is required.
ANABEC and Caliwel are complimentary mold abatement systems which come ready to use. While the manufacturers advise users not to mix the these products together. We advise everyone to consider using each product in turn to assure a successful mold abatement.
Contractors buying product qualify for the ANILINE ENVIRONMENTAL client consultation program, where up to one half hour of telephone advice about product application, or OSHA and EPA related question is free.
Biological hazards in the workplace have become of more concern over the past few years. In 1988 when ANILINE ENVIRONMENTAL started we had virtually no biological sampling equipment beyond glass jars and zip lock bags. [The biological warfare agent sampling kit designed by our company President Steve Pressman in 1985, turned up missing when his National Guard unit came home from annual training in 1987.] Today we have cases of sterile sample containers, nutrient swabs, culture plates, and both the Zefon Air-O-Cell and Microcell Micro 5 biological samplers. In addition, we also have special proprietary samplers used to determine the morphology and chemical composition of microscopic particles by scanning and transmission electron microscopy from R.J. Lee group of Monroeville, PA.
While most of the biological agents we have been examining are common species of mold in water damaged homes and buildings, the effect of biological agents upon worker health in industry is the bulk of our activity. Primary sources of exposure to biological agents include soluble metal working fluids used in machining operations, and Salmonella and E coli bacteria found in the food processing industry. The contamination of cooling water in large buildings and industrial plants by Legionella has also been of concern in the Cleveland, OH area.
Exposure to biological agents in the workplace may cause asthma, dermatitis, respiratory infections, and various forms of cancer. It is important to understand that in the case of high incidence of respiratory infection, transfer contamination, that is the passing of an infectious agent from hand to mouth, is a more likely cause of workplace disease than an aerosolized bacteria. In facilities where we have recommended that hand washing stations be installed and that hand washing be rigorously enforce before eating, upper respiratory infections have virtually disappeared. Also, given that it is now the cold and flu season flu shots are recommended for businesses with large numbers of employees and where employees meet with the public on a daily basis.
As to anthrax, even though the immediate scare is over we are exploring advanced decontamination systems and control measures. The EnviroKnowHow.Com products division of ANILINE ENVIRONMENTAL sells the KES Airocide TiO2 air purifier system which is used in the Senate office buildings. In the meat processing industry we have encountered skin lesion causing species of bacteria related to B. anthracis. These bacteria either in the family or unrelated, but causing similar symptoms in affected employees may be likened to Bobcats of the microbial world, where disease pathogens such as anthrax are the Tiger.
In the investigation of the March 2001 outbreak of Legionnaires' disease at the Ford Casting Plant, see CDC Article for background, ANILINE ENVIRONMENTAL President, Steven Pressman, disagreed with the sampling modalities employed by the consultants hired by Ford. Since Legionella bacteria is native to sub-surface soils he felt it prudent to sample the bank sand used in the metal casting process at its source, in plant storage areas, and at work stations. While it is very expensive an technically difficult to break down soil samples to match an infectious agent to a given patient, it is not impossible. The staff biologists of the labs contracted to ANILINE ENVIRONMENTAL are experienced in working with samples from hospital and industrial settings. Also, it is our practice to have all environmental samples permanently archived, when that material is related to incidents where people are sickened or pass away.
If you need more information about how ANILINE ENVIRONMENTAL services please refer to the following :
 | ANILINE Industrial Hygiene and Safety Services |
| ANILINE Environmental Compliance Services |
| ANILINE ENVIRONMENTAL Publications List |
| Back to ANILINE ENVIRONMENTAL Home Page |
11/06/03