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- Employee safety awards: UW-Stout
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- UW-Superior recovery update
- ACS publishes report on safety culture in academia
- UW-Madison Union fire
- Two Eau Claire students perish in fire
- Clean Harbors Buys Safety-Kleen
- Hazardous Waste Electronic Manifest
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- Parkside apartment fire
- HazCom labeling poster
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- Lifting loads and pregnant employees
- AIHA publishes stand on mold in buildings
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- Employee dies on job
- NIOSH recommends CNT/ CNF limits
- Voice Activated
- Nanomaterial risk management practices
- U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Social Media
- UC lab safety improvements
- Safety grant opportunity for campuses
NIOSH recommends CNT/ CNF limits
Published Mon 05/13/13 09:19 AM
NIOSH recently published a recommendation that occupational exposures to carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and carbon nanofibers (CNFs) be controlled to reduce a potential risk of certain work-related lung effects. NIOSH recommends that employers in companies that manufacture or use carbon nanotubes or carbon nanofibers:
- Reduce worker exposures to airborne concentrations of those materials to no more than 1 microgram per cubic meter of air as a recommended exposure limit.
- Give priority to engineering controls that enclose processes where CNTs or CNFs could be released into the air, such as transfer of the dry, fine powders from one container to another.
- Educate and train workers on the safe handling of bulk quantities of CNTs and CNFs.
- Train workers on the proper use of engineering controls, administrative controls, and safe work practices.
- Establish health surveillance and medical screening programs.
For further information, see the NIOSH update or the Current Intelligence Bulletin 65: Occupational Exposure to Carbon Nanotubes and Nanofibers.