Wastewater treatment plant operations should ensure workers follow routine practices to prevent exposure to wastewater. These include using engineering and administrative controls, safe work practices, and personal protective equipment normally required for work tasks when handling untreated wastewater.
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What are the dangers of working in a wastewater plant?
Wastewater Treatment Plant Occupational Health and Safety Bulletin 5 o Avoid aerosolizing sewage water or minimizing exposure time in areas where aerosolizing is occurring. Make sure ventilation systems are functioning properly when working …
What are the best practices for wastewater treatment plant operations?
Aug 30, 2016 · Use proper confined space procedures, personal protective equipment (PPE), and ambient air and personal monitoring to ensure your safety. Engulfment and/or drowning in treatment tanks are hazards at treatment plants. Put guardrails around all open water sources. Keep rescue equipment such as floats and hooks available near all tanks.
What are the safety precautions to be taken in a treatment plant?
Oct 21, 2020 · In the past, workers have used wet bandanas, face masks and other wearables to stay cool on hot days. A new cooling PPE technology is currently being developed, which takes advantage of evaporation’s natural cooling effect by using specially woven fabrics to ensure worker safety in hot summer conditions. Flame & Water-Resistant Clothing
What happens if you live near a wastewater treatment facility?
• SEGREGATE VEHICLE AND PEDESTRIAN TRAFFIC, USE SPOTTERS AND ALWAYS PERFORM A 360OCHECK BEFORE MOVING. PROTECTIVE MEASURES • FIXED AIR MONITORING SYSTEMS WITH ALARMS • IGNITION-PROTECTED SYSTEMS IN NEC CLASS 1 LOCATIONS. • HANDHELD MULTI-GAS METERS • EMERGENCY SHUTDOWN DEVICES • APPROPRIATE PPE, INCLUDING …
What are the hazards of wastewater treatment?
Wastewater workers face some of the highest number of safety hazards in any U.S. industry, including: 1 Exposure to effluents and the reagents used in water processing and treatment that may cause acute poisoning, chemical accidents (skin burns, injury to the eyes, etc.), damage to the respiratory system, chronic diseases, dermatitis and allergies; 2 Injuries from slips, trips and falls on wet floors, and drowning in treatment ponds, pits, clarifiers or vats; 3 Burns and injury from hazardous chemical splashes; 4 Cuts from sharp tools and equipment; 5 Injuries working in confined, small spaces. 6 Injuries and disfigurement from electric shock and burns; 7 Injuries and death from explosions; and 8 Injuries or disfigurement from entanglement of limbs in moving machinery.
When is it important to check in with a wastewater company?
When wastewater workers are on the job alone, it is important that they check in with the company at predetermined times to confirm they are safe. This can be done manually or through an automated system, which will send out an alert if a check-in is missed.
What is smart helmet?
Smart Helmets. Hard hats are no longer the simple, sturdy plastic objects that protect lone workers’ heads. The next generation of hard hats are equipped with LED lights, cameras and sensors that can measure important information like the worker’s temperature and oxygen levels in the brain.
Why do we need fatigue monitors?
To measure fatigue in a worker, monitors are being placed on clothing and headware to keep track of the worker’s eye and head movements.
Why is location tracking important?
Location tracking is important because in an emergency, every second counts.
What is the most common cause of injury in the water industry?
To address this problem, there have been a number of fall-detection solutions that utilize motion sensors to detect rapid movements toward the ground as well as extended periods of inactivity if a worker is unconscious or injured and unable to move.
What is slip resistant gloves?
Slip-Resistant Gloves. A common problem is handling wet or oily tools and machinery at the plant. Thankfully, work is being done to develop slip-resistant gloves that are coated in a material that deflects oil keeping hands dry as well as a layer that absorbs the oil, preventing saturation.
Essential work in tough times
This year, saying thank you to wastewater operators is particularly important because of how this group has banded together in rapid response to the pandemic.
What this award means
We talked to employees at WWTPs to get a better sense of what this award means to them. Here’s what one supervisor had to say:
Be a part of the solution
Ecology oversees the certification program for wastewater operators. Given our state’s growing population, we need to treat more and more wastewater. This is a great field, with growth opportunities.
How does air stripping affect the body?
If particles, organisms or pathogens that are air-stripped are inhaled, they go through the bronchial tubes and lungs, are cleared from the lungs, and then swallowed. This can cause respiratory and gastrointestinal exposure. Some organisms pass directly into the bloodstream. Experts at Cornell University report that though air-stripping occurs during aeration and other processes, it occurs less at wastewater treatment plants because the particles tend to attach to solids rather than water 1. The effects of inhaled organisms vary from upper respiratory irritation accompanied by eye irritation to depression, central nervous system damage and severe systemic poisoning. Plant workers are often the first affected. If they realize they've been affected, they're able to alert managers to correct the problem.
What is an airborne hazard?
Airborne Hazards. Chemicals from wastewater treatment facilities become airborne when they're air-stripped. Air-stripping occurs when organisms, chemicals or particles in water find their way into air, where they can subsequently be inhaled.
Can cockroaches be controlled?
Through proper maintenance of the facility, the spread of disease by flies, cockroaches, lice, mosquitoes, mice and rats can be controlled. Houseflies, as well as other pests such as cockroaches, can also present a health hazard for those living near wastewater treatment facilities.
Can flies be in wastewater?
Houseflies, as well as other pests such as cockroaches, can also present a health hazard for those living near wastewater treatment facilities. Flies land on the food they eat to taste it, and raw sewage attracts houseflies. The hairs on a single housefly can carry millions of pathogens, which are transferred to whatever the fly next lands on. National Small Flows Clearinghouse (funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) relates in its newsletter “Pipeline” that transferring these pathogens through flies and other pests is nowhere near as common as through drinking water or eating food that's been contaminated by sewage 2. Wastewater treatment facilities that treat and dispose of contaminants properly protect the communities surrounding them. Through proper maintenance of the facility, the spread of disease by flies, cockroaches, lice, mosquitoes, mice and rats can be controlled.