Course:SPPH381B/TermProject/The Red Solo Cup/Hazards of Working in the Plastic Manufacturing Industry

Introduction

There are over 1.1 million workers in the plastic industry in the United States. The plastic industry is vulnerable to industrial accidents as low-wage, unskilled, temporary workers are employed in the production process.

Legionnaires’ Disease

Legionnaires’ Disease is a form of pneumonia contracted by exposure to and inhalation of water and water mists that contain elevated concentration of legionella and legionella pneumophilia. In the plastic manufacturing industry workers using injection molding equipment may be at higher risk for Legionnaires’ disease as the process requires water to be used to cool the metal molds and the process equipment.

Ergonomics

Many injuries in the plastic manufacturing industry are musculoskeletal caused by cumulative trauma, these are called Cumulative Trauma Disorders (CTDs). The most common forms of CTDs include back injuries, tendonitis, bursitis, strains, and carpal tunnel syndrome; the risks for these are associated with repetitive motions, high forces, awkward postures, and vibration exposures. These problems occur when doing tasks such as: unloading parts from molding machines, breaking or cutting off the excess plastic from parts, reaching to activate press control buttons, reaching to dispense completed parts into boxes or barrels, and standing, as a general ergonomic risk.

Lockout/Tagout

Lockout and Tagout involves hazardous energy, with sources including mechanical, hydraulic, pneumatic, chemical, or thermal in machines or equipment. Injuries from this hazardous energy may result in electrocution, burns, crushing, cutting, laceration, amputations, or fractures, and have the potential to be fatal. Almost 10% of serious accidents in many industries involve failure to control hazardous energy, proper lockout/tagout practices ensure worker safety from hazardous energy releases. Lockout is the physical locking of the system in a safe mode which isolates energy from the machine, equipment or process and tagout is used with lockout to indicate why the lockout is required. These procedures are employed when non-routine activities are done on the equipment such as repair and maintenance.

Styrene

Workers in the plastic manufacturing industry have the highest risk of styrene exposure, and the most severe exposures occur during the manufacturing process of the product. Styrene has been manufactured in the United States since 1938 and the production of styrene in 2008 was 12.2 billion pounds and 65% of the total product is used in the production of polystyrene plastic and resins. The estimated number of workers exposed to styrene is approximately 300,000 workers.

Recognition

The acute effects of exposure to styrene include eye and bronchial irritation, and nasal secretions. There are indications of adverse renal effects in exposed workers and chronic exposures may affect the central nervous system, causing headaches, fatigue, weakness, depression, hearing loss, and peripheral neuropathy. The most prevalent effect in humans is irritation of the mucous membrane including irritation of the upper respiratory tract, throat irritation, increased nasal secretions, and nasal irritation. Workers that had been exposed to styrene for about 10 years experienced obstructive lung changes. Additionally, colour vision and hearing were found as common impairments among workers exposed to styrene, and the effects of both were reversed after a period of no styrene exposure. There were also significant associations found between styrene exposure and mortality from epilepsy, mental disorders, and suicide, however lifestyle factors may also be causes of elevated mortality in the observed sample.

Evaluation

The most sensitive target system to chronic exposure of styrene via inhalation is the nervous system, specifically impairment of the vestibular-oculomotor system. The recommended exposure limit of styrene is 50ppm, and its exposure routes are inhalation, skin absorption, ingestion, and skin or eye contact.

Control

An administrative control is the Workplace Environmental Monitoring Program (WEMP) that is used to manage workplace exposure to hazardous substances by measuring the concentrations and determining if they surpass the recommended exposure limits. Businesses that work with styrene are under obligation to measure the concentration of styrene in the workplace at least once every six months, this measurement is conducted by industrial hygienists from private consulting agencies. Personal protective equipment must prevent skin and eye contact of the worker with styrene, if the eyes are affected they must be irrigated immediately and skin must be flushed with water.