Yesterday at work, some dummies decided to remove the epoxy paint on the floor of an inside room of about 15X15 feet with lots of MEK. (we buy it by the 45 gallon drum) About 5 guys donned the paper style coveralls and full face gas masks with the correct filters for MEK. So far so good - sort of. Except they tried to clean the entire floor in one go!
I happened to walk past just after they started and the fumes were unbelievable and growing fast. In a matter of minutes it was hard to breath in the majority of the building, so I issued an evacuation order and a few hundred people streamed outside. To be honest, I was scared! We opened up every door and window in the building and turned on every exterior fan, but it still took over an hour for the place to become breathable. After an hour I sent in a couple of suitable dressed guys to scrape up (no water!) the loose epoxy and take it outside. This helped to lesson the concentration of fumes.

My fear was with that high a concentration of fumes in that large an area that there was a great possibility of a fire or more likely, an explosion with resultant severe injuries or even deaths. I know what MEK does to the respiratory system, but my question to you experts reading this, how real was the possibility of an explosion under those circumstances? Could the MEK have reacted with the old epoxy paint and made the fumes even more noxious? What else?

Immediately after everybody returned to work we had a preliminary safety meeting and looked at a bunch of things that went wrong and we will do more tomorrow. Anything in particular that we should look at beyond the obvious? Yes, one or even two guys could be fired tomorrow!

 

What is the MEL for MEK and was that limit exceeded?
Was a gas detector in use at the time ?
Also where the workers informed of the dangers of the chemical?
In my opinion if no one was hurt and you feel that the employees learned a lesson then no one should be fired. You now have better trained personnel

 

I do not know what the MEL was at that time and not sure if we can even measure it. How would we do that?
We do not have gas detectors. Why should we?
All workers are fully instructed and re-instructed on the safe use of every chemical we use, but they tend to quickly ignore the rules when nobody is looking, hence the possibility of some firings tomorrow.

 

Good thing the vapors did not hit an ignition source. The pel 200ppm tlv 200ppm. You should be able to get all this info from your MSDS sheets that you must have per OSHA compliance on every dangrous chemical your employees use or may be exposed to. Plus your written hazard comm. plan, Evac. plan, ppe plan.

 

pull the msds (from the supplier or the manufacturers website) this will give you flash points and should list LEL and UEL for the MEK.

A gas water heater, exhaust fan or even flipping a switch will ignite. Unless you in one of those strange places where all the equipment is classified for hazardous environments.

 

yup, same point. ignition hazard. proper ventilation should be the key point.
work area proximity second. don't know how far you get into this but,
timed worker exposure and third worker safety factor(unexposed and timing from a secondary, hazard free location).

done my share of "it's ok, we'll just do this quickly" ordered work for NY state.
but rather be fired than dead, Stan. 'nuff said.

 

I agree with GHerrmann, pull your msds. Wherever I have been we have always had to have the MSDS in a location where employees could check it(break room, time clock) so they had access to know what they were working with regardless of what upper management told us. Actually part of the OSHA compliance if I'm not mistaken. The MSDS had to contain everything, when I say everything it was down to what you used to clean the toilets, the last can of spray paint....everything.

Glad to hear everyone is safe though, not a good time of year to take a one way trip off the planet.

 

Oh, I see you re in Mexico. No OSHA there, only edit. Sorry could not help myself. Dont know if there is any type of laws of this nature in Mexico.

 

You should be using MSDS sheets, if your workers are regulary using these types of chemicles with in enclosed spaces then they should have some way of monitering the LEL and UEL along with O2 (at a min UEL LEL).

Not totally sure about your exact rules on OH&S where your at but Good Practices would be to not use the product untill such time as your employees have MSDS sheets availible and at hand while using the products.

Proper MSDS training should be done if not then the boss should take the responsibility and get some training for their workers.

Your workers were very lucky that no one died.

Good luck and even if you do not have an official Training standard where your at, make one and stick to it.
The internet is your friend.

 

outside of the US, company policy usually follows inline with OSHA.

 

Thanks for the replies. We follow OSHA, but do have the MSDS sheets also. In fact we just passed an OSHAS and a Transport Canada review two weeks ago.
All our people have had the training and re currency training for any and all the chemicals they use, but they tend to quickly forget the rules when it is convenient.
These dummies ignored all their training and did what they wanted to do. The Magorganite is going to hit the fan tomorrow.

 

Mexstan,
Anytime time you change the atmospher with either welding or chemicals in a Room,Space,Void,Tank or Vault you need a "gas detector" or "air monitor".

What those workmen had done was to make a room normally made for human ocupation into a "Confined Space" Not for human Ocupation.
OSHA has pages and pages on the Confined Space Permit Procedure. Both Permited and Non-Permited.
We use the MSA Orion model at my work..
It will measure;
1.% of O2. should be >19.8%
2.%of LEL. Lower Explosive Limit
3.CO in ppm.
4.H2S in PPM. This will kill with out being able to smell it in higher concertrations. In lower concentrations it smell like sulfer/rotten eggs.
I hope this helps...
IMO,No need to fire the mis-informed personel if these safety proccedures were not taught. Management needs to keep the workers informed on up to date safety standards..
Doug.

 

H2S is hammered on frequently in the oil industry. What commonly happens with H2S in concentrations that you CAN smell is, the H2S reacts with moisture in your nose forming sulfuric acid that kills the nerves in you nose so you slowly stop smelling it thus thinking it has passed until you drop dead.

 

I personally would not fire anyone over this, But I would use it as a company wide example of why you need to follow the proper procedures when dealing with hazardous/toxic substances. No one died or got hurt so it really is a good lesson in what not to do.

There are a few videos on the market dealing with WHMIS. one of them is about a young guy simliar to your group using a solvent inside a house, done it hundred times before, the house caught fire, he got burnt and he tells his story.

As managment I would be documenting your employees actions along with Supervisors and managaments actions in reguards to this situation. Ask your workers what they would have done differently. Use this info and the info you gathered to make things better.

Another question, how well did the evacuation of the buildling go? If tempers are flaring about about it, you can use this as an example for the company to base any future evacuations on and any possible training they may need for their own workers. This might allow tempers to cool down abit and look at the effecciency of the compnays over all emergnecy plans.

Good luck

 

definitely take a look at their safety record.
If they have repeatedly had unsafe incidences, then that is grounds. at least in the US it is. I doubt Mexico is much differences. companies are still liable for employee actions.