A hazard control program
A hazard control program ensures that all the steps necessary to protect workers from exposure to a system or substance are undertaken, including engineering controls. Engineering controls involve a wide range of interventions whose intention is to reduce the employee’s exposure to hazards. It is essential to match the control measures to the health risk associated with the workplace.
A general ventilation system in the machining lines is appropriate since it brings clean air into the workplace, which then replaces the contaminated air within a workspace. Dilution ventilation ensures that the clean air is uniformly mixed with the contaminated air so that the concentration of the contaminant is reduced to acceptable levels. The overall dilution system is an acceptable engineering control for contaminant sources that are spread out throughout the workspace. The workers should be located at a considerable distance from the sources (Smedley et al., 2013).
The ventilation system fans should be positioned to remove air from the workspace through a downwind extraction point or to bring in clean air on a wall and in the roof. If the workplace has a large internal space, the fans can be positioned on all walls of the building to ensure the circulation of fresh air. Exhaust fans should be situated near the source of contamination as possible. The extraction fans should be used in the wall and roof, with make-up air being supplied from the open windows and doors. A combination of fans on each side of the building’s walls ensures that fresh air keeps circulating throughout the building, where one removes the polluted air while the other generates fresh air (Smedley et al., 2013).
The effectiveness of the ventilation system could be reliably measured using the trace gas method. Any measurable gas at low concentrations can be used as a tracer gas if it follows the air movements. The gas should not be a normal constituent of the environment under investigation. It should also be associated with no toxicants or allergens to permit its use in an occupied workspace. It should be environmentally friendly, non-reactive, and non-flammable. It should also be economical to use, for instance, Carbon dioxide (Awbi, 2007).
In this case, a tracer gas system is comprised of injection, distributing, and sampling systems. The injection and distribution system is involved with the release and spread of an appropriate amount of tracer gas in the working space. The air sampling is then achieved automatically using a sampling network (Awbi, 2007).
The LEV is designed to capture airborne contaminants from their source before they can mix with the workplace air and enter the worker’s breathing zone. The paint booth will utilize an enclosing-hoods, which is effective since the contaminated air is completely contained. The paint booth encloses the process; hence, the contaminated air is contained, but so is the operator; hence, the personal protective equipment is needed to protect the operator. On the other hand, the hand welding process requires a capturing hood. The welding is done outside the hood; hence, the hood requires the LEV system to generate enough air-flow to ensure that the contaminated air is drawn out (Zealand, 2019).