Reprinted from the ACJ - March, 1995
In order to complete our two-episode educational course in industrial hygiene, we will now continue with our definitions. If you remember, last month we left with our hero discussing "Gram." Little did we know that lurking just ahead were mutagens, nephrotoxins, teratogens and a couple of martial arts turtles that speak surf slang. So dudes, let's shoot the curl, try not to pearl and finish up on the health speak.
HEPA - High Efficiency Particulate Air filter. Fancy name for a filter with very small holes (0.03 microns) which are small enough to catch lead fumes.
HMIS - Hazardous Materials Identification System. This kit helps rate the flammability, health and reactive nature of chemicals from 0 to 4 in order to warn folks that may be unfamiliar with the hazards. Labels and placards are used to convey the information in the area of concern.
Hygroscopic - A tendency to absorb moisture from the surroundings. Anyone who has left the lid off of a jar of powdered zinc chloride flux knows how a hygroscopic compound behaves.
IARC - What an electrical current says at a short circuit. Or perhaps it is the International Agency for Research on Cancer.
IDLH - Immediately Dangerous to Life and Health. Can pertain to areas of high chemical concentration, or areas of low oxygen concentration. Could also apply to trying to break up a fight between two large, burly, angry guys.
LD50 - This is the concentration of a substance that when administered to some poor group of test subjects kills, on the average, 50 percent of them. Any volunteers?
Mucous Membrane - The wet, slimy, disgusting lining of our bodies' "hollow" organs: nose, mouth, stomach, intestine, bronchial tubes and urinary tract. These areas are greatly affected by exposure to acids, bases and hygroscopic substances.
Mutagen - A material which causes changes in the chromosomes that make up living cell tissue, thus causing it to die or change its behavior. Contrary to many sci-fi movies, many mutations cause the death of the cell affected rather than allow it to morph into a crime fighter.
Narcosis - Stupor caused by excessive exposure to organic chemicals. To use it in a sentence, you might say, "I saw a guy falling down narcosized at the party last night."
Necrosis - Localized death of living tissue, such as a third degree burn. Hopefully you will never see a guy falling down necrosized at a party.
Nephrotoxic - Egyptian queen with a social disease? No, it is a substance that attacks and harms your kidneys.
NFPA - National Fire Protection Association. A voluntary fire prevention and protection society that establishes national fire codes and rates the fire, health and reactivity hazards of industrial materials from 0 to 4. The system is very similar to the HMIS system we discussed earlier, except the NFPA ratings are geared more toward the hazards during fire response.
NIOSH - National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health. These are the public health people who certify test and sampling equipment and give recommendations on exposures to OSHA.
NOS - The appendage between your eyes. Or a suffix attached to a hazard description that means "Not Otherwise Specified." If something is flammable but doesn't appear on a given list, it is considered Flammable NOS.
NOX - Generic abbreviation for the oxides of nitrogen, NO2, NO3, N2O4. The same applies to oxides of sulfur, SO2, SO4. They are referred to as SOX. This confuses people in Chicago and Boston.
NTP - National Toxicology Program. They develop "useful" (their words not mine) tests for public health regulations and develop profiles of toxic materials.
Oxidizer - Any substance that yields oxygen readily and therefore "feeds" any fire involving it.
PEL - Permissible Exposure Limit. OSHA's limits on the amount of exposure a person may have to a given chemical. It can be exposure averaged over time (see TWA) or a Ceiling Limit, which is the highest concentration at any one time considered safe.
RCRA - Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. Administered by the EPA, these are the folks who oversee the disposal of hazardous waste.
SARA - Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act. This is the law that requires Workplace and Community Right to Know. SARA makes us secure and provide MSDS, train our workers on workplace hazards, and provide lists of hazardous materials to fire departments and any concerned citizen that asks. She makes us file Tier I and II inventory forms to our Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC). She also necessitates Title III form R's to be submitted to the State Emergency Response Commission (SERC). Those who know her believe that SARA's a b——.
Sensitization - This is your body developing and displaying an allergic reaction to some substance you have contacted before. For example, you get a skin rash from spilling a product on your skin. The rash goes away, but the next time you work with the same product, even if you don't take a bath in it, the rash reappears. Your body has become sensitized to the material and reacts as though you are allergic to the stuff. The lesson to be learned here is to keep our exposure to the products we work with to a minimum through exhaust systems, protective equipment and good hygiene.
Specific Gravity - This is the density of a material in relation to the density of water. We give water a specific gravity of 1.0. Then if a material is said to have a specific gravity of 1.2, we know that it is 1.2 times heavier than water. This is true of solids and liquids, but not of gases. The specific gravity of gases are based on the density of air.
Teratogen - This is a substance that causes a physical defect in developing embryos. If any pregnant women work in your shop, look closely for this term on product MSDS and take the necessary precautions.
TLV - The maximum concentration of a material that can be considered safe to work with, in or around for a healthy worker day after day.
TWA - The official airline of this Health Watch article. How about the Time Weighted Average, which is the total amount of exposure to something when averaged over an eight-hour period. If you are exposed to eight pounds of Brand X over eight hours, the TWA would be one pound. Be careful here, because if you were exposed to all eight pounds in the first hour, you may not be around to enjoy the next seven.
VOC - See the OSHA guy inspect your paint booth. Why? Because he likes to... What is he looking for? The Volatile Organic Content, the fast drying organic solvents that make paint work. They evaporate into the air and may harm the ozone layer, create smog and/or make a great platform to run for public office.
Zinc Fume Fever - Tom Petty's blockbuster 1991 album which may or may not cause flu-like symptoms, weakness, fatigue, nausea and fever, as inhalation of large quantities of Zinc Oxide will.
So that is our term handbook. Have you got a lab coat on? Clipboard in hand, let's start reciting health care acronyms. Extra points will be given for those of us using two or more of these terms in a single sentence.
And after we stroll the shop floor spewing knowledge, saving lives and protecting property, we can take off the coat, put down the clipboard, help that guy wrestle that core back into the Chevy it came out of, empty the trash, pay our bills, pick up the kids from school and get back to the reality of life. I had fun as a Ph.D. for 15 minutes. How about you?
The above article was written by David M. Brown, Chief Engineer of Johnson Manufacturing Company, Inc. and is published by JOHNSON with the expressed approval of the National Automotive Radiator Service Association and the Automotive Cooling Journal. Other reproduction or distribution of this information is forbidden without the written consent of JOHNSON and NARSA/ACJ. All rights reserved.
JOHNSON MANUFACTURING COMPANY
114 Lost Grove Road / PO Box 96 / Princeton, Iowa 52768-0096
Phone 563-289-5123 or Fax 563-289-3825