OSHA Personal Air
Sampling
Presented By:
Joseph Cantone
Industrial Hygienist/Project Manager
• Background
• Regulatory Requirements
• Sampling Equipment and Media
• Standard Sampling Procedure
• Sampling Results
• Initial Exposure Assessment
• Negative Exposure Assessment
• Personal Sampling for Potential Exposures Other
Than Asbestos
• Conclusions and Questions
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Introduction
• OSHA sampling and analytical methods were developed
to provide OSHA with validated methods to monitor
workplace exposure to a wide variety of chemical
substances.
• What is the Permissible Exposure Limit (PEL) for
asbestos?
Employers must ensure that no employee is exposed to
an airborne concentration of asbestos in excess of 0.1
fibers per cubic centimeter (f/cc) as an 8-hour timeweighted average (TWA). In addition, employees must
not be exposed to an airborne concentration of asbestos
in excess of 1.0 f/cc as averaged over a sampling period
of 30 minutes. This is known as an Excursion Limit.
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Background
• Which asbestos operations must employers monitor
and assess?
Employers must assess all asbestos operations for the
potential to generate airborne fibers, and use exposure
monitoring data to assess employee exposures.
Employers must also designate a competent person to
help ensure the safety and health of their workers.
• What is the function of a competent person?
On all sites with asbestos operations, employers must
designate a competent person- one who can identify
asbestos hazards in the workplace and has the authority
to correct them.
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Background
• Competent Person
• This person must be qualified and authorized to ensure
worker safety and health as required by Subpart C,
General Safety and Health Provisions for Construction
(29 CFR 1926.20).
• This person must frequently inspect job sites, materials
and equipment.
• The competent person must attend a comprehensive
training course for contractors and supervisors certified
by the USEPA or a state approved training provider.
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Background
• Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
• 29CFR 1910.1001 (General Industry)
• 29CFR 1926.1101 (Construction Industry)
• Initial Exposure Assessment
• Negative Exposure Assessment
• New York State Department of Labor (NYSDOL)
• Industrial Code Rule 56 (ICR56)
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Regulatory Requirements
• What is an initial exposure assessment?
• To determine expected exposures, a competent person
must perform an initial exposure assessment to assess
exposures immediately before or as the operation
begins. This person must perform the assessment in time
to comply with all standard requirements triggered by
exposure data or the lack of a negative exposure
assessment and to provide the necessary information to
ensure all control systems are appropriate and work
properly. A negative exposure assessment demonstrates
that employee exposure during an operation is
consistently below the permissible exposure limit (PEL).
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Initial Exposure Assessment
• The initial exposure assessment must be based on the
following criteria:
• Results of employee exposure monitoring, unless a
negative exposure assessment has been made; and
• Observations, information, or calculations indicating
employee exposure to asbestos, including any
previous monitoring.
Note: For Class I asbestos work, until employers
document that employees will not be exposed in excess
of the 8-hour TWA PEL and STEL, employers must
assume that employee exposures are above those limits.
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Initial Exposure Assessment
• What is a negative exposure assessment?
• For any specific asbestos job that trained employees
perform, employers may show that exposures will be
below the PELs (i.e., negative exposure assessment)
through the following:
• Objective data demonstrating that asbestos
containing materials (ACMs), or activities involving
it, cannot release airborne fibers in excess of the 8hour TWA PEL or STEL;
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Negative Exposure Assessment
• What is a negative exposure assessment? (continued)
• Exposure data obtained within the past 12 months
from prior monitoring of work operations closely
resembling the employer's current work operations
(the work operations that were previously
monitored must have been conducted by
employees whose training and experience were no
more extensive than that of current employees, and
the data must show a high degree of certainty that
employee exposures will not exceed the 8-hour
TWA PEL or STEL under current conditions); or
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Negative Exposure Assessment
• What is a negative exposure assessment? (continued)
• Current initial exposure monitoring that used
breathing zone air samples representing the 8-hour
TWA and 30-minute Excursion Limit exposures for
each employee in those operations most likely to
result in exposures over the 8-hour TWA PEL for the
entire asbestos job.
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Negative Exposure Assessment
Conduct IEA
NEA is not
allowed
No
Yes
Competent person assess
the job
Do work practices and materials for
current job closely resemble those
of the IEA?
No
Yes
Has less than 12 months elapsed since
the IEA or last employee exposure
monitoring
Yes
Competent person certifies that a
NEA applies to the current job
No
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Are exposures less than
the PEL and STEL?
56-9.2 Air Sampling Requirements.
(a) Personal Air Sampling. Air sampling shall be performed in
the worker’s breathing zone, by the asbestos contractor for
his personnel, as required by current OSHA regulations.
Who is required to conduct this sampling?
A) The Asbestos Abatement Contractor
B) The Air Sampling Technician
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NYSDOL ICR56
Sampling Equipment and Media
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• Low Volume Pump and Tubing
• Primary Calibration Device
• Bios Dry Cal
• Buck Calibrator
• Soap Bubble Burette
• Secondary Calibration Device
• Rotometer
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Sampling Equipment and Media
•
•
•
•
•
Belts
Clips
Tubing
Chain of Custody
Packaging
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Sampling Equipment and Media
• The media required is Phase
Contract Microscopy Cassettes
(PCM)
• The sampler must have a 25
mm opening with a cellulose
ester filter with 0.8-μm pore
size for personal sampling
• The samplers are commonly
referred to as “PCM Cassettes”
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Sampling Equipment and Media
• First determine what tasks will be performed that shift.
• On a typical asbestos abatement job there are multiple
tasks such as workers removing ACM, someone will be
wetting the asbestos, others might be bagging up
removed ACM, someone would be cleaning the work
area.
• Each specific task needs monitoring to determine
occupational exposure level.
It is the Employer’s responsibility to assess all asbestos
operations for the potential to generate airborne fibers,
and use exposure monitoring data to assess employee
exposure. The Employer must also designate a competent
to help ensure the safety and health of the workers.
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Sampling Procedures
Sampling Procedures
• The pump must be pre-calibrated. Typical flow rates 1.0 to
3.0 liters per minute (lpm). WHY?
• The pre-calibration may be done using a secondary
calibration device known as a rotometer. However it should
be noted that the New York State Department of Health
(NYSDOH) requires that secondary calibration devices be
calibrated against primary calibration devices such as Bios
Dry Cals, Buck Calibrators or soap bubble burettes on a
minimum of a quarterly basis. This is based on NYSDOH
Laboratory Accreditation Requirements Title 10, Parts 55.2
and 55.3 of the New York State Official Compilation of
Codes, Rules and Regulations (10 NYCRR 55.2 and 55.3).
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• Pre-calibration of the sampling pump
• The pump shall be placed
on the worker, attached
to a belt. The cassette
shall be placed in the
workers breathing zone.
• The chain of custody
should be filled out
including sampling start
time, flow rate (lpm) and
workers information
including name, and task.
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Sampling Procedures
• Upon conclusion of the work shift the pumps must be
post calibrated with the rotometer. All pertinent
information of what the employee did, including tasks
during the work shift, type of ACM involved (TSI,
surfacing, VAT etc.) should be included on the chain of
custody. Average the pre and post calibration.
• The samples should be packaged along with field blanks
and the chain of custody. Submit a minimum of two (2)
field blanks with each set of samples. The samples
should be relinquished to a NYSDOH Environment
Laboratory Approval Program (ELAP) laboratory.
• The laboratory will analyze the samples utilizing the
NIOSH 7400 method by PCM.
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Sampling Procedures
• When a worker exits the work area for lunch, cap the
sample and turn off the pump. When the worker returns
to the work area, put the pump back on the worker and
resume sampling. Note the time the worker was not
wearing the pump on the chain of custody.
If a worker is not wearing his personal sample where else
should the sample be run:
A) On top of a ladder
B) On top of the negative air machine
C) Inside the cab of the Supervisor’s truck
D) None of the above
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Sampling Procedures
Other Occupational Exposures
• NIOSH Method 7300
• PEL 50 micrograms per cubic meter
• Action Level 30 micrograms per cubic meter
• Silica
• NIOSH Method 7500
• PEL is calculated based on percentage of silica in sample
• Hexavalent Chromium
• OSHA Method ID-215
• PEL 5 micrograms per cubic meter
• Action Level 2.5 micrograms per cubic meter
• Potential high exposure when welding stainless steel
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• Lead
Other Occupational Exposures
• Total Dust – NIOSH 0500 PEL is 15 milligrams per cubic meter
• Respirable Dust – NIOSH 0600 is 5 milligrams per cubic meter
• PCBs
• NIOSH 5503
• OSHA has PELs for two types of PCBs
• Chlorodiphenyl (54% Chlorine) 0.5 milligrams per cubic meter
• Chlorodiphenyl (42% Chlorine) 1.0 milligrams per cubic meter
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• Total and or Respirable Dusts
Web Sites• OSHA.GOV
• For NIOSH Manual of Analytical Methods• http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/
For Questions about occupational
exposures or sampling please contact a
Certified Industrial Hygienist (CIH) an
Industrial Hygienist (IH) or a Laboratory
such as Galson Labs.
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Information
Joe Cantone
Colden Corporation
(315) 445-0847
Cantone@Colden.com
WWW.Colden.com
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Thank You!