Are Federal Ozone Standards About to be Lowered?

Currently, the Environmental Protection Agency is in the process of reviewing the ozone national ambient air quality standard. The regulations were last updated in March of 2008, when the agency established a standard of 0.075 parts per million for average exposure over an 8-hour period. In January of this year, the EPA proposed lowering the standard to one in the range of 0.060 to 0.070 ppm in order to “provide requisite protection of public health and welfare,” i.e. the ozone concentration above which exposure is potentially harmful. Since that time, the agency has been accepting comments and supporting materials as well as public submissions both in favor of and opposing the proposed increase in standards. The EPA is due to release the final rules by August 31, 2010.

As you know from our last post, Ozone is currently used as a sterilant gas in the healthcare industry. Because of the health affects that exposure to ozone can have on the eyes and respiratory system, OSHA has set an 8 hour time-weighted average permissible exposure limit (PEL) of 0.1ppm. The OSHA PEL has not been updated for nearly forty years, and perhaps it is time for OSHA to revise its PEL for Ozone in light of the current scientific data. With such minute amounts of gas able to cause significant health problems (the NIOSH immediately dangerous to life and health limit is just 5ppm), it would be extremely difficult if not impossible to immediately identify a leak without a continuous area monitor. Continuous monitoring is about to become even more important to employee safety, assuming the proposed regulations become final.

For access to the proposed regulations and supporting materials, visit:
http://www.regulations.gov/search/Regs/home.html#docketDetail?R=EPA-HQ-OAR-2005-0172

Why Do We Have Ozone Action Days?

Yesterday, over 50 cities in the United States declared Air Quality Action Days to protect their population from potential over exposure to hazardous gases and particles in the air. One such harmful gas found in the air we breathe is Ozone (O3). Here in Pittsburgh, we’re in the middle of quite the heat wave, with high temperatures in the low to mid 90’s the last several days. Yesterday’s Air Quality Index (AQI) reached 115, which converts to 81 parts per billion of Ozone in the air. The government considers this number to be unhealthy for sensitive groups, such as those with lung diseases (including asthma), children, older adults, and people who are active outdoors.

According to AirNow.gov, even low levels of ozone can cause health effects for those exposed. These effects include:
• Difficulty breathing deeply
• Shortness of breath or painful breathing
• Coughing and sore throat
• Inflammation and damage to lung lining
• Aggravation of lung diseases
• Increased frequency of asthma attacks
• Continuing damage to the lungs even when the symptoms have disappeared

In terms of occupational exposure, OSHA set an 8 hour permissible exposure limit at 0.1 parts per million, which is only .019 parts per million higher than what was in the air in Pittsburgh yesterday. Furthermore, NIOSH set an Immediately Dangerous to Life and Health number at 5 parts per million.

What should we take away from this? The government monitors the air we all breathe because of the harmful effects of gases like Ozone. Shouldn’t employers monitor the air that workers breathe too? Considering that Ozone sterilizers used in healthcare can have tens of thousands parts per million in the chamber, it wouldn’t take much of a leak to cause serious health problems or even death!

Visit www.airnow.gov to learn more about Air Quality Action Days, and other harmful effects of air pollution.

Sterilization Industry Trends

Last week, MD Publishing posted a new Roundtable discussion about sterilization equipment, in which 3 experts explained trends in the industry. Dr. Richard Warburton, our CTO and General Counsel, used the opportunity to discuss a major trend in the sterilization industry that the experts neglected to point out: that of increased awareness of employee safety. Dr. Warburton explains that “With greater education and awareness of the hazards, improved design of the sterilizers, increased use of continuous gas monitors, and wider implementation of engineering controls and PPE, the use of sterilant chemicals in healthcare is becoming safer every day.” Unfortunately, while this seems to be one of, if not the, most important trends over the last several decades, it was barely mentioned in the article.

To read Dr. Warburton’s full comments, as well as the article, visit:
http://www.mdpublishing.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=535