The work-related health effects of the dry-cleaning chemicals taking the place perchloroethylene of are unknown.

Tests Lead to Recommendations to Minimize Exposure to Alternative Dry-cleaning Chemicals

If you have ever opened a dry-cleaning bag and put on a freshly laundered garment, you know that dry-cleaning can make clothes look and smell almost new. That freshness, however, is created using chemicals that may be potentially harmful to employees who work in the dry-cleaning process. Although today’s dry-cleaners are moving away from using perchloroethylene, a toxic chemical that may cause cancer, the work-related health effects of the chemicals taking its place are unknown.

In a new evaluation from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and a state health department, researchers tested air samples in four dry-cleaning shops for two types of alternative chemicals to perchloroethylene. In two of the shops, they tested for butylal and the chemicals it can decompose into, formaldehyde and butanol. In the other two shops, they tested for high-flashpoint hydrocarbons, which are chemicals that require high temperatures to ignite. They found that air concentrations of the chemicals in all four shops were below occupational exposure limits set by NIOSH and other occupational health organizations, except for butylal, which does not have exposure limits. 

Workers had the highest airborne exposures while loading and unloading the dry-cleaning machines and pressing fabrics. In another finding, the researchers noted possible skin exposures to the chemicals. Since many of the employers and workers were not native English speakers and had limited English proficiency, the researchers used interpreters during the site visits and provided translated information back to the participants in the language they could understand best. The health hazard evaluation also recently was published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene.

To minimize exposures, the researchers made several recommendations to shop owners and employees:

1. Wear eye protection and appropriate hand protection when cleaning the waste dry-cleaning chemical container.
2. Use NIOSH-certified respirators, not surgical masks, to protect against dust and chemical droplets in the air.
3. Pour or brush the new, butylal-containing spot cleaner, rather than spraying it, which would also prevent creating a fire hazard.
4. Follow safety and health recommendations on products’ safety data sheets when using any spot cleaners.
5. Ensure the dry-cleaning shop has adequate ventilation.
6. Periodically monitor exposures, with help from local government agencies, in shops that use new dry-cleaning chemicals, especially after changes in work practices and conditions.

Further study of the possible health hazards of alternative dry-cleaners, especially butylal, is needed, according to the researchers.

More information is available:

• Occupational Exposures to New Dry Cleaning Solvents: High-flashpoint Hydrocarbons and Butylal
• Evaluation of Occupational Exposures at a Dry-cleaning Shop Using SolvonK4
• NIOSH Division of Surveillance, Hazard Evaluations, and Field Studies
• NIOSH Health Effects Laboratory Division
• NIOSH Division of Applied Research and Technology
• NIOSH Dry-cleaning
• NIOSH Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards

A recent survey of healthcare workers found that certain surgical procedures often lack ventilation that removes surgical smoke at its source

Exposure to Surgical Smoke Persists, Despite Available Ventilation Controls



A recent survey of healthcare workers found that certain surgical procedures often lack ventilation that removes surgical smoke at its source. Photo courtesy of Vangie Dennis, The Emory Clinics: Ambulatory Surgery.

A recent survey of healthcare workers found that certain surgical procedures often lack ventilation that removes surgical smoke at its source, according to researchers at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). As a result, some healthcare workers may face serious health problems from exposure to surgical smoke, as explained in an article in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine.

Thanks to medical advances in electrosurgery and laser surgery, we now have access to minimally or non-invasive procedures for everything from heart disease to glaucoma. For patients, these procedures provide clear benefits, including faster, less painful recoveries. However, the advances in technology can present new hazards to healthcare workers. As laser and electrosurgical tools heat body tissues, they generate surgical smoke that contains toxic gases, vapors, and cellular material. Exposure to these substances may cause short-term health problems, such as eye, nose, and throat irritation, and possible long-term illnesses, such as emphysema, asthma, and chronic bronchitis. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration estimates that 500,000 healthcare workers are exposed to surgical smoke each year.

To control emissions, professional, consensus, and government organizations recommend that local exhaust ventilation (LEV) be used to capture the smoke at its source. This local, as opposed to general, ventilation collects smoke at the surgical site so that it never reaches the breathing zone of healthcare workers or patients. NIOSH recommends LEV, in addition to general room ventilation, to control healthcare workers’ exposure to surgical smoke.

NIOSH researchers analyzed data from a targeted, anonymous, web-based survey to examine what precautions healthcare employers and workers take in relation to hazardous substances, including surgical smoke. The NIOSH Health and Safety Practices Survey of Healthcare Workers is the largest federally sponsored survey of healthcare workers in the United States. It addresses safety and health practices relative to the use of hazardous chemicals among more than 12,000 healthcare workers. Of the respondents, more than 4,500 reported exposure to surgical smoke during electrosurgery or laser surgery and answered specific questions about work practices that control surgical smoke. Most respondents were female, white, and between 41 and 55 years of age. In terms of occupation, over one-third were nurse anesthetists, and about one-fifth were anesthesiologists.

The results showed that only 47% of the respondents reported always using LEV during laser surgery, and even fewer, 14%, always used LEV during electrosurgery. Respondents who reported always using LEV also were more likely to report that they had received training on the hazards of surgical smoke and that their employer had procedures in place for preventing exposure. Few survey respondents reported that they wore respiratory protection; most wore surgical or laser masks, neither of which provide respiratory protection. Electrosurgery was the most common source of exposure to surgical smoke, with 4,500 respondents reporting they were present during this procedure. In contrast, 1,392 respondents reported exposure during laser surgery. These survey results can help raise awareness about the importance of local control of surgical smoke by underscoring impediments to LEV use.

More information is available:
Secondhand Smoke in the Operating Room? Precautionary Practices Lacking for Surgical Smoke
NIOSH Health and Safety Practices Survey of Healthcare Workers: Training and Awareness of Employer Safety Procedures
NIOSH Division of Surveillance, Hazard Evaluations, and Field Studies

CAVITATION IS THE CAUSE OF THE MASSIVE HOLES AT THE LAKE OROVILLE SPILLWAY

How did a giant, gaping hole tear through the massive Oroville Dam’s main concrete spillway last week, setting in motion the chain of events that could have led to one of America’s deadliest dam failures?

Dam experts around the country are focusing on a leading suspect: Tiny bubbles.
The prospect is simple, yet terrifying and has been the culprit in a number of near disasters at dams across the globe since engineers discovered it about 50 years ago. In a process called “cavitation,” water flowing fast and in large volumes can rumble over small cracks, bumps or other imperfections in concrete dam spillways as they release water during wet years. The billions of gallons of water bumping off the surface at 50 miles an hour create enormous turbulence that can form tiny water vapor bubbles that collapse with powerful force, and like jackhammers, chisel apart concrete.

“It starts with small holes, but it can break off big chunks of concrete,” said Paul Tullis, a professor emeritus of civil engineering at Utah State University and cavitation expert. “It’s like a big grinder. It causes concrete to be torn apart.”

It’s still too early to investigate the cavity on the spillway while dam operators at the nation’s tallest dam desperately drain billions of gallons of water down the damaged chute ahead of coming storms. Water trickles down as workers inspect part of the Lake Oroville spillway failure on Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2017 in Oroville, Calif.

But the same phenomenon nearly caused the collapse of one of America’s other largest dams, Glen Canyon, a 710-foot tall behemoth on the Colorado River, in 1983.

Heavy snowmelt and rains that winter flooded the Colorado River basin, filling the 185-mile-long Lake Powell to the brim. Glen Canyon Dam — completed in 1966, just two years before the 770-foot Oroville Dam went into operation — opened its two spillways for the first time ever to lower the lake levels.

On June 6, 1983, rumbling sounds could be heard from the left spillway — which is a tunnel, different than Oroville’s 3,000-foot long concrete chute — and the dam began to shake violently. Bureau of Reclamation engineers shut off the spillway and found a series of five holes being torn into the rocks on the dam’s side.

When engineers entered the Glen Canyon Dam’s damaged spillway, they found a crater 32 feet deep and 180 feet long, and tons of concrete, reinforced metal and rock that had simply washed away. The right spillway had similar, but less severe damage.


They didn’t simply reconstruct the spillways, they introduced new technology with aeration slots — essentially ramps at vulnerable spots in the spillway to create an air pocket where water vapor could be disrupted and weakened. The physics gambit worked. In 1984, the runoff was equally as challenging, but Glen Canyon’s spillways had no problems.

Those fixes led the federal agency to retrofit two other large dams — Hoover and Blue Mesa — with aerators.

“It was a defining moment in dam design,” Bureau of Reclamation hydraulic engineer Philip Burgi told a magazine years later. “The world was watching how we were going to solve this problem.”

Similar fixes were added to the Tarbela Dam in Pakistan and Infiernillo Dam in Mexico, and now are common in new dams.

It could be months before the cause of the collapse of Oroville Dam’s spillway is known. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission this week ordered the state Department of Water Resources to convene a panel of five dam engineering experts to oversee an investigation.

But despite the lessons from Glen Canyon, the Oroville Dam spillway apparently did not have aerators. The massive chute is 178 feet wide, as wide as 15 lanes of freeway, and just 15 inches thick in the middle. Sources at the Department of Water Resources say it hadn’t been retrofitted with aerators — likely one or two ramps, in the case of Oroville’s chute-style spillway, perhaps a foot high each, that would allow the water to flow over and reduce the risk of cavitation.

“Compared to the cost to repair that, it would be just a few million dollars,” said Tullis. “It’s not just a matter of money, it’s a matter of safety. It should have been a priority.”

When the main spillway failed, officials had to slow water releases. The lake, swollen from heavy storms, rose nearly 50 feet in five days and overtopped its emergency spillway for the first time ever, forcing the emergency evacuation of nearly 200,000 residents along the Feather River. The hillside below the emergency spillway eroded badly, leading to fears it would collapse, and send a wall of water into towns below. In recent days, dam operators have increased flows down the broken main spillway, dropping the lake level, and hoping it doesn’t further tear apart.

By Friday morning, state officials had lowered the water level at the 10-mile-long reservoir by 40 feet, especially important as three new storm systems were coming in.

“The threat level is lower. It’s much, much, much lower than what it was on Sunday,” said Bill Croyle, acting director of the State Department of Water Resources. Water rages down the broken main spillway at Oroville Dam on Wednesday. Dale Kolke / California Department of Water Resources

One concern that is certain to be a focus in the investigation are cracks in the main spillway in recent years. Records from the state Division of Safety of Dams show the cracks were seen in 2009. Also, crack repairs were done last in 2013, according to Kevin Dossey, a senior civil engineer with the Department of Water Resources.

“We made repairs and everything checked out,” Dossey said last Friday at a news conference. “It looked like it would hold, and be able to pass water.”

If the concrete patches came off, or the cracks worsened, however, that could have eroded the spillway, or it could have created enough of an uneven surface to start the domino-effect of cavitaton, experts said.

“It doesn’t take a whole lot of an imperfection when water velocities are very, very high,” said James Kells, a professor of civil and geological engineering at the University of Saskatchewan.

“When I first saw photos, the first thing that came to my mind was cavitation, just because of where the damage was,” Kells said. But he also began to think uneven concrete slabs or internal erosion below the concrete could be “viable causes.”

Of concern: State officials appear not to have entered the spillway channel during the last two inspections in 2015 and 2016, according to records. “Any inspection you do from a great distance,” Kells said, “I would have to question that.”

Another theory is that the drought dried the ground under the spillway enough that it shrank, creating a void of a few inches that cracked the spillway when huge volumes of water roared down this winter.

“Soils shrink and swell,” said Nicholas Sitar, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at UC-Berkeley. “They have a way of changing volume with seasons. Anyone who has an old house where the doors open and close differently through the year has seen it.”

Big changes are critical, Sitar said.

“They have to look at their procedures and modify them,” he said. “Clearly the spillway is going to have to be rebuilt,” a job that will cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

And the investigation won’t be easy.

“All evidence of what caused this thing,” Sitar said, “has been washed away.”

DAMS DAMAGED BY ‘CAVITATION’

1967: Heavy snow melt in the Bighorn River basin raises the Yellowtail Dam reservoir to record levels, opening the spillway for 20 straight days. The Montana dam spillways suffers a hole the size of a semi-truck and trailer.

1977: The Karun Dam in Iran has more than 7,500 feet of concrete torn up on its concrete spillways.

1979: The Kebon Dam along the Euphrates River in Turkey suffers damage to two spillways; one had been running for 15 days, another just three.

1983: The Glen Canyon Dam takes on heavy snowmelt and rains leading to water coming perilously close to the top of the dam. Its two tunnel spillways open for the first time ever and both receive significant damage. Engineers create new aerator devices to fix the problem, a big turning point in spillway engineering.

1983: Hoover Dam, the nation’s most well-known, used its spillways in 1941 for initial testing and again in 1983 due to unanticipated high water levels, and both times a concrete elbow transition suffered cavitation damage.

Mid-1980s: Flaming Gorge Dam on the Green River in northeastern Utah and Blue Mesa Dam in Colorado suffer damage are both fixed with aeration devices.

CALIFORNIA DIR and Division of Workers’ Compensation Suspend Seven Medical Providers for Fraud: Philip Sobol, Jason Hui-Tek Yang, Alan Ivar, Thomas M. Heric, Daniel Dahan and Boniface Okwudili Onubah

News Release No.: 2017-12                                                             Date: February 16, 2017 CALIFORNIA DIR and Division of Workers’ Compensation Suspend Seven Providers for Fraud Liens associated with the suspended providers total $59 million  Oakland—The Department of Industrial Relations and its Division of Workers’ Compensation today announced it has suspended seven medical providers from participating in California’s workers’ compensation system. The providers have been convicted of workers’ comp fraud or have been suspended from the Medicare or Medicaid programs for medical fraud. The suspended providers have filed more than 8,500 liens in California’s workers’ compensation system, with a total of claim value of at least $59 million. “We are moving quickly to use new anti-fraud tools at our disposal to suspend those proven to game the workers’ comp system at the expense of injured workers and employers,” said Division of Workers’ Compensation acting administrative director George Parisotto. “Workers’ compensation fraud undermines the state’s efforts to increase payments and improve services to injured workers, and to reduce costs for employers,” said DIR Director Christine Baker. “Removing fraudulent providers and staying lien claims of those criminally-charged with fraud will further reduce costs in the system.” The suspended providers include: ·         Philip Sobol, an orthopedic surgeon in Los Angeles convicted in Santa Ana’s federal District Court for insurance mail fraud and other charges connected to receiving workers’ comp kickbacks. Dr. Sobol has nearly 6,000 active workers’ compensation liens with an estimated total claim value of more than $42.7 million. ·         Jason Hui-Tek Yang, a psychiatrist in Pasadena convicted in Riverside County Superior Court for his involvement in an insurance fraud conspiracy, including the referral of patients for unnecessary care to justify workers’ compensation billing. Dr. Yang has over 2,000 active workers’ compensation liens with an estimated total claim value of more than $13.7 million. ·         Alan Ivar, a chiropractor in Costa Mesa convicted in Santa Ana’s federal District Court for referring patients to a Long Beach hospital in a kickback scheme for well over a decade. Dr. Ivar still has over 400 active workers’ compensation liens with an estimated total claim value of more than $2.5 million. ·         Thomas M. Heric, a physician in Los Angeles convicted in Sacramento’s federal District Court for health care fraud related to the Medicare and Medicaid programs who was suspended from those programs. ·         Carlos Arguello, a Chula Vista businessman convicted in San Diego’s federal District Court for his role in a kickback scheme that involved referring injured workers to specific chiropractors for medical care regardless of their injuries. ·         Daniel Dahan, a former chiropractor in Long Beach suspended from the Medicare and Medicaid programs who surrendered his license to practice. ·         Boniface Okwudili Onubah, a former neurologist in Marina Del Rey suspended from the Medicare and Medicaid programs whose medical license was revoked. Suspension notices were issued to the providers on January 17, 2017, by the Division of Workers’ Compensation’s Acting Administrative Director George Parisotto.  The suspension becomes effective 30 days later if the provider does not appeal the action. An additional three providers who were notified of the pending suspension have filed appeals of the action. Those appeals are in process. AB 1244 (Gray and Daly) requires the Division of Workers’ Compensation (DWC) Administrative Director to suspend any medical provider, physician or practitioner from participating in the workers’ compensation system when convicted of fraud. DWC has adopted provider suspension regulations on the new law, which requires providers to be suspended from the system for one or more of the following grounds: The provider has been convicted of a crime involving fraud or abuse of the Medi-Cal or Medicare programs or the workers’ compensation system, fraud or abuse of a patient, or related types of misconduct; The provider has been suspended due to fraud or abuse from the Medicare or Medicaid (including Medi-Cal) programs; or The provider’s license or certificate to provide health care has been surrendered or revoked. DIR has posted information on its fraud prevention efforts online, including a report on its anti-fraud efforts in the California workers’ compensation system. DIR protects and improves the health, safety and economic well-being of over 18 million wage earners, and helps their employers comply with state labor laws. DIR’s Division of Workers’ Compensation monitors the administration of workers' compensation claims, and provides administrative and judicial services to assist in resolving disputes that arise in connection with claims for workers' compensation benefits. Members of the press may contact Erika Monterroza or Peter Melton at (510) 286-1161, and are encouraged to subscribe to get email alerts on DIR’s press releases or other departmental updates.  # # #         The California Department of Industrial Relations, established in 1927, protects and improves the health, safety, and economic well-being of over 18 million wage earners, and helps their employers comply with state labor laws. DIR is housed within the Labor & Workforce Development Agency. For general inquiries, contact DIR’s Communications Call Center at 844-LABOR-DIR (844-522-6734) for help in locating the appropriate division or program in our department.

HYDRAULIC FRACKING CAUSES EARTHQUAKES: PADEP Finds Spatial/Temporal Correlation between Hilcorp Hydraulic Fracturing and April 2016 Seismic Events in Lawrence County

COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA
Dept. of Environmental Protection
Commonwealth News Bureau
Room 308, Main Capitol Building
Harrisburg PA., 17120

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

02/17/2017

CONTACT:

Deborah Klenotic, DEP

717-787-9954

 

PADEP Finds Spatial/Temporal Correlation between Hilcorp Hydraulic Fracturing and April 2016 Seismic Events in Lawrence County

Meadville, PA – Seismic events that occurred in western Lawrence County on April 25, 2016, were likely correlated to natural gas hydraulic fracturing by Hilcorp Energy Company, according to a report by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).

“Induced seismicity is a relatively new and complex technical issue,” said DEP Acting Secretary Patrick McDonnell. “This report reflects our commitment to understand what occurred, through extensive review with scientific and industry partners, and to formulate procedures to reduce seismic risk going forward.”

A series of low-magnitude earthquakes that began at 4:17 a.m. in North Beaver, Union, and Mahoning Townships showed a “marked temporal/spatial relationship” to hydraulic fracturing activities at Hilcorp’s North Beaver NC Development well pad.

The Pennsylvania Seismic Network registered four earthquakes. (OhioSeis recorded three earthquakes, and Lamont-Doherty Cooperative Seismic Network recorded five.) The final magnitude of the earthquakes ranged from 1.8 to 2.3 on the Richter Scale, putting them in the category of microseismic events, which are likely to go unnoticed by humans and only recorded by sensitive seismic monitors.

The Hilcorp pad, which includes four wells drilled into the Utica Shale Formation, lies within a five-mile radius of the reported epicenters. Hydraulic fracturing activities began at the pad on March 30.

Hilcorp was using a technique known as “zipper fracturing,” or hydraulic fracturing operations that are carried out concurrently at two horizontal wellbores that are parallel and adjacent to each other. When DEP contacted Hilcorp on April 25, the company voluntarily stopped activities and later reported they would discontinue hydraulic fracturing and stimulation operations at the well pad indefinitely.

Recommendations in the DEP report include discontinuation of the practice of zipper fracturing during any future completions when there is less than a ¼ mile between lateral portions of adjacent wellbores. This applies to Hilcorp’s Utica gas wells in North Beaver, Union, and Mahoning Townships. Zipper fracturing is allowed when there is more than ¼ mile distance between lateral portions.

In addition, it is recommended that Hilcorp maintain operation of its own seismic network within these townships. The seismic network will allow for the accurate detection of local, low-magnitude events.

A seismic event reporting schedule and operator response plan is also included in DEP’s recommendations:

•    For seismic events of 1.0 or greater magnitude occurring within 6 miles of the wellbore path, the company should notify DEP within 10 minutes via email and within one hour by telephone.
•    For any succession of three seismic events of 1.5 to 1.9 magnitude that occurs within a three-consecutive-day period and within a 3-mile radius of the wellbore path, Hilcorp should notify the DEP within 10 minutes via email and within one hour by telephone. Actions taken for this magnitude range of seismic events include suspension of stimulation operations, submittal of seismic data to DEP for review and a plan detailing modifications to stimulation operations.
•    Finally, for any seismic event of 2.0 or greater magnitude that occurs within a 3-mile distance of a wellbore path, Hilcorp should notify the DEP within 10 minutes via email and within one hour by telephone.  Actions taken include cessation of stimulation operations, flowing back of the well, submittal of seismic data to DEP for review and a plan detailing any potential modification to stimulation operations.

On November 16, 2016, DEP approved a seismic monitoring plan submitted by Hilcorp implementing the recommendations set forth in the DEP report.

DEP has also recommended that these terms apply to any new permits requested by Hilcorp and that other operators follow similar plans within the referenced townships.

See the DEP website for the report, a webinar discussion, and more information on the seismic events. 

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Hilcorp halts fracking at Lawrence County shale site near earthquake



A natural gas company voluntarily halted fracking activity on a Marcellus shale well in Lawrence County this week while state officials investigate a minor, nearby earthquake.

Houston-based Hilcorp Energy stopped fracking one of the four wells it drilled on its North Beaver NC Development pad west of New Castle about noon Monday, hours after a 1.9 magnitude earthquake was detected nearby in Mahoning.

The Department of Environmental Protection is investigating the tremor with the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, said DEP spokeswoman Melanie Williams.

A spokesman for Hilcorp did not respond to questions on Wednesday.

Researchers and industry officials have for several years debated a potential connection between fracking and earthquakes. Studies have connected swarms of earthquakes to underground injection wells into which companies deposit wastewater from fracking, which uses high-pressure water and sand to break up and prop open shale to release gas and oil thousands of feet below ground.

State officials say they have found no links between oil and gas operations and earthquakes in Pennsylvania since the shale drilling boom began a decade ago.

Pennsylvania has become the second largest gas producer in the country but has fewer than 10 injection wells for wastewater storage.

DEP and DCNR said last year they would increase monitoring for earthquakes in areas of oil and gas development.

In 2014, authorities in Ohio stopped operations at a Hilcorp site in Poland Township — less than 10 miles from Mahoning — because five earthquakes ranging from 2.1 to 3.0 magnitude happened close to that pad.

Hilcorp had finished fracking two of the wells on the Mahoning pad, Williams said. Crews stopped work on the remaining wells and were removing all equipment from the site, she said.