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Respiratory PPE in Spray Booth? Post New Topic | Post Reply

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Jeri Devlin
Posted: Jun 29, 2011 03:02 PM
Respiratory PPE in Spray Booth?
Another Safety-related question: We would like to use a spray booth with windows to demonstrate SPF application to our sales force and potential customers. Does anyone know of guidance documents or air monitoring studies that would indicate what type of respirator would be required inside the booth and how long the customer should wait outside the booth before being able to view up close and touch the finished foam?
jimcoler

I have over 10 years of experience specifying and installing open and closed cell spray foam. I've sold my business but I'm still selling for the new owners and consulting on large and custom specific jobs. 

I've expanded my knowledge into t

Posted: Jun 29, 2011 05:11 PM
air monitoring data from who? OSHA, NIOSH, EPA??? Is this a joke? They only have about 6 air monitoring testing sites that they've dont air monitoring at and the data is a joke! It's mixed with sprayer, and trimmer and then they switched sometime and then switched back. the whole time, they didn't have any exhaust/intake ventilation within the space. So, the data your looking for is questionable at best and I think you'd be looking for a legal suit of sometype just for bringing this out in the open. I know OSHA, NIOSH and the EPA all have guidelines whcih are stated but they aren't based on factual data so what good are they?

Your guess is as good as mine!
Jeri Devlin
Posted: Jun 29, 2011 05:24 PM
Wow. Now you know why I'm called Rookie. Maybe it should be "born yesterday". We're wearing SARS in the booth, but I don't know that its necessary and hoped some big company with IH on staff might have done some testing. Guess better safe than sorry.
mason
Posted: Jun 29, 2011 06:16 PM
It depends on how efficient the spraybooth is in eliminating fumes and mists as to how long it would take to let folks into the booth without PPE.

The industry is taking the conservative approach and recommending 24 hours after application to let building occupants into a sprayed area. So taking the same conservative approach, you probably should have them wear a air purifying respirator after the ventilation has cleared the air so that fumes are dissipated. It is overkill, but will provide you with less liability if someone claims that they were over exposed.
mason
Posted: Jun 29, 2011 06:21 PM
As to your original question, you can have air monitoring of the area during application to determine if an air purifying respirator could be used based on your ventilation. You would not want more than 10 times the PEL in the area at any time. OSHA requirements are 0.02 ppm and NIOSH recommendations are 0.005 ppm. OSHA is regulatory, NIOSH is a recommendation but is used if you want to be conservative to protect against chemically sensitive individuals.

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