Labor & Industries (L&I), Washington State

Hazardous Waste Operations Chapter 296-843, WAC

Effective Date: 05/01/04

Employee Exposure Controls WAC 296-843-170

For printing

Your responsibility:

Implement feasible controls to protect employees from exposure to site hazards

You must

Control employee exposure to site health and safety hazards

WAC 296-843-17005

WAC 296-843-17005
Control employee exposure to site health and safety hazards.

You must

• Use feasible controls, selected based on monitoring and other available information, to protect employee exposure above permissible exposure limits (PELs) or other published exposure levels.
  • – Examples of controls include:
    • Installing pressurized cabs or control booths on equipment
    • Using remotely operated material handling equipment
    • Removing all nonessential employees when opening drums
    • Wetting down dusty operations
    • Positioning employees upwind of possible hazards.
• Evaluate new technologies and other control measures before using them on a large scale.
• Use any reasonable combination of controls and personal protective equipment (PPE) to reduce and maintain employee exposure at or below the PELs, published exposure levels, or dose levels when controls aren’t:
  • – Feasible
    or
  • - Effective.
• Make sure PPE is not used as a replacement for controls.
  • – PPE should be used only as a supplement to controls.

Note: For those hazardous substances without PELs or published exposure levels, use other published literature and material safety data sheets (MSDSs) to help decide what level of protection is appropriate. For more information about MSDSs, see WAC 296-800-180 in the Safety and Health Core Rules book.

You must

• Use employee rotation to reduce exposure below ionizing radiation PELs or dose limits, when that is the only feasible means of protecting employees.