How go get my boss to take Health & Safety seriously?

osha carbon monoxide detector image

Boo84

I work in a garage and my office is very close to the vehicle workshop. Sometimes when the engines have been running in the workshop for a while the exhaust fumes enter my office area. The smell is terrible and I have no protection. The mechanics have extractor fans but fail to use them. I have asked them why they don't use them but they just use excuses like they don't work. I raised the issue with my boss and he basically laughed in my face. How can I get him to take my concerns seriously? Even if I report the company, how do I gather evidence to prove the company was negligent?

Answer
Actually it takes 1-2 hours to accumulate the Amount of CO (Carbon monoxide) that it takes to be lethal in a 36,000 cubic foot room/garage without any or little ventilation. So if the Bay/car doors of the garage are open for ventilation then the amount of CO that accumulates in your office is very low and is only lethal or dangerous to your health if the cars are running at idle for approximately 24-26 hours and if you are sitting or close to the floor about 30-60 cm (1-2 ft.) from the floor Due to the CO being denser than the air (Nitrogen, Hydrogen, Oxygen, and Carbon mixture of the atmosphere). The human body needs to be exposed to a CO enriched room for 2-5 minutes for a lethal dose of CO or 30 seconds to 1.75 minutes for dangerous carboxylhemoglobulin levels. So your choice would be report to OSHA, EPA, or HR about the problem but if there is not enough CO accumulation in your office then there isn't anything that OSHA, EPA, or HR can do if you want to you can go to your local Hardware store and by a CO alarm and place it in your office they go off if there is a high or dangerous CO level one thing to also look at is if the fire alarm system in the shop is active and fairly new then that would be set off by an integrated CO detector.

my carbon monoxide detector reads 2ppm in my wearhouse when my forklift trucks are running is this safe?

CHARLES

Answer
If it truly is only 2 ppm then you are within the limits of OSHA which has established a 50 PPM limit for the workplace.... But be careful of the testing device you are using. Some devices use a different unit of measure. The safest concentration is zero.
Some detection devices only measure concentrations of 1,000 parts per million and higher, significantly above safe levels. Testing equipment should be capable of sensing levels as low as one part per million. For example, Underwriters Laboratories' standard for residential carbon monoxide detectors requires detectors to alarm before 90 minutes of exposure to 100 parts per million of carbon monoxide.

If initial readings don't reveal sufficient concentrations of carbon monoxide to set off the alarm, digital measurement testing equipment that produces a printed 24-hour record can be used to help identify the source.

Powered by Yahoo! Answers

have central gas heat. fumes from vents smell like exhaust. What? Why? Dangerous? Wht to do?

osha carbon monoxide detector image

donnacaren

Answer
Ok you could be having a problem with carbon monoxide but carbon monoxide (CO) is oderless so that is not causing the smell. Purchase a CO detector if you do not have one, they are available at Wal-Mart etc and are inexpensive and a good idea to have. Next you need to call your HVAC company or plumber, you could have a cracked heat exchanger or incomplete combustion due to the regulator malfunctioning or needing adjusted. By all means do not use the heater until it is fixed. Yes CO is dangerous but it is rare to find a level that is deadly, OSHA says 30 parts per million over an 8 hour period is the limit. If high CO concentrations are a problem you will experience symptoms such as a cherry red tone to the face, headaches, nausea, and confusion.

Who do I contact about a neighbor that is causing a problem with my health?

Spanky C

I have a neighbor that tries to work on cars in the building. He floods my place with car exhaust to the point where it makes me feel sick. It sets off carbon monoxide detectors everyday. I've been sent to the hospital twice.

I've tried contacting OSHA, our local fire department, the police, the building owner, I've talked to the guy who is causing the problem. All say they will get right on it and fix it, but nothing ever changes. No one does anything about it. I don't have the money to hire a lawyer and take this guy to court.

I would move but I live within walking distance to my job. I can't drive because I have seizures. There is no public transportation here either.

Answer
Go to your county health department.

Otherwise you may need to speak to an attorney about getting an injunction against repairing cars in the building... if it's not safe, it's not safe.

I don't know what's to "fix" - the building needs ventilated, apparently.

Powered by Yahoo! Answers

What level of carbon monoxide is dangerous?

osha carbon monoxide detector image

Michelle

My NIGHTHAWK carbon monoxide detector is reading 9...I did just cook a turkey, but...help?

Answer
That detector is reading in parts per million (ppm). 9 ppm is basically harmless. OSHA allows workers to be exposed to 50 ppm. 100ppm is considered fatal. They set those detectors very low to give you plenty of time to correct a problem.
What JB said about opening a window is a good idea.

How to test air quality in workspace?

Dylan

I have a small office in a building full of artists, musicians etc... The office has a very strong smell to it. It almost smells like very strong crayons. I would like to test the air quality in the space. I feel as though there might by some noxious fumes coming from somewhere.
Any recommendations on how to test the air quality for pollutants? No need to test for allergens.

Answer
This is a stretch, but OSHA requires all work places to keep a list of chemicals and their hazards on site. This location sounds like a school and I doubt you will find the HAZMAT sheets on site, but you could contact Windsor Newton and any other artist paint manufacturers for the hazard sheet on their product. The toxic paint thinners of old have been replaced with newer stuff with less fumes. Walk around the studios and check the labels. You may find they need ventilation when used. Clay would also have an odor. I personally love that smell. Just about any diverse art center has it. Your other option would be to hire a safety engineer to check your work space. Radon testers and carbon monoxide detectors are the only air quality testers I have seen for the general public.

Powered by Yahoo! Answers

I need some legal advice, advice in general about a matter involving carbon monoxide poisoning?

osha carbon monoxide detector image

still_hvnt

My Mom and her coworkers have all suffered from carbon monoxide poisoning in the building where they work (this is in Texas). Four of them have nearly lost their lives now. The agency is covering it up and denying anything is wrong with the building, and are not fixing the problem. However it is obvious something is wrong - we have doctors reports, and a coworker's witness to an inspection from the Fire Marshall (in which he found toxic levels of carbon monoxide but it was not reported), as well as a coworker's personal Carbon Monoxide detector finding toxic traces of carbon monoxide in the building.... the list goes on.

This is a small town, the Fire marshall just so happens to be cousins with one of the managers at the agency who is covering it up. And apparently OSHA and the Health Department do not want to help either. We cannot get attorneys to call us back either.

Is there anything else we can we do to get help?

Answer
The fire department keeps logs of all calls. See if you can get a copy. Also, see if the police have any info on it. They must have been called if the fire dept. was. OSHA doesn't want to be involved? Have you gotten a lawyer yet? Co2 poisoning is so dangerous your mother and her coworkers were lucky to be alive. It is odorless and so easy to just close your eyes and die. Back to getting a lawyer. Get one that isn't in your town, they will know what to do. He can even all the documents. He can even go public, which is what the place won't want. OSHA should be involved. They almost died! Tell mom, get a lawyer. If they get away with this accident and deny it, they set a precedent for the next company to do the same. Do not back down. Best of luck to your mom and her coworkers.

Carbon Monoxide and homeostasis?

Justafreak

If the bond formed between carbon monoxide and hemoglobin is over 200 time stronger than the bond formed between oxygen and hemoglobin, how does exposure to carbon monoxide affect homeostasis?

Answer
Hemoglobin transports oxygen and carbon dioxide back and forth. Depending on the concentration in each environment, CO2 or O2 will break away from hemoglobin and diffuse into the cells or into lungs.

But if a certain molecule is bound to hemoglobin very tightly, they will not break away easily to diffuse into cells or into the lung. And Carbon monoxide is a molecule that will bind hemoglobin and leave no space for the much needed CO2 and O2 molecules to bind to hemoglobin.

Thus all hemoglobin when bound by Carbon monoxide will not leave any space for CO2 or O2 to bind. Thus there will be no cellular respiration occuring. Thus a person will die.

Carbon monoxide is a significantly toxic gas and has no odor or color. It is the most common type of fatal poisoning in many countries. Exposures can lead to significant toxicity of the central nervous system and heart. Following poisoning, long-term sequelae often occurs. Carbon monoxide can also have severe effects on the foetus of a pregnant woman. Symptoms of mild poisoning include headaches and dizziness at concentrations less than 100 ppm. Concentrations as low as 667 ppm can cause up to 50% of the body's haemoglobin to be converted to carboxy-haemoglobin (HbCO). Carboxy-haemoglobin is quite stable but this change is reversible. Carboxy-haemoglobin is ineffective for delivering oxygen, resulting in some body parts not receiving oxygen needed. As a result, exposures of this level can be life-threatening. In the United States, OSHA limits long-term workplace exposure levels to 50 ppm.

The mechanisms by which carbon monoxide produces toxic effects are not yet fully understood, but haemoglobin, myoglobin, and mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase are thought to be compromised. Treatment largely consists of administering 100% oxygen or hyperbaric oxygen therapy, although the optimum treatment remains controversial. Domestic carbon monoxide poisoning can be prevented by the use of household carbon monoxide detectors.

Powered by Yahoo! Answers