Occupational poisoning is prone to occur in winter and precautions must be put in place

Winter is a season of acute occupational acute carbon monoxide poisoning and organic solvent poisoning. In the production process, some companies’ workplaces have closed doors and windows, and workshop ventilation measures have not been implemented, resulting in the inability of toxic and hazardous substances to be discharged in a timely manner, thus laying a hidden danger for safe production and occupational health work. In order to avoid tragedy, enterprises and operators with occupational poisoning hazards should strengthen winter protection.

☆ These industries are prone to occupational poisoning

In the chemical, metallurgical, pharmaceutical and other industries and enterprises that use organic solvents such as electronics, leather, toys, handicrafts, and furniture manufacturing, occupational poisoning accidents are prone to occur. For example, electronic manufacturing companies that use organic solvents in large quantities have high requirements on the cleanliness of production workshops. When the workshop is poorly ventilated and toxic and hazardous materials accumulate, it will cause harm to the health of operators and cause occupational poisoning.

Cause Analysis

1. To prevent wind and cold, some companies close their doors and windows.

2. Some enterprises are in the off-season, the number of orders is small, and the workshop has not started ventilation and exhaust ventilation facilities, resulting in an increase in the concentration of toxic and hazardous substances in the air.

3. Near the end of the year, some companies rushed production, organized personnel to work overtime, and managed on-site management. Chemical containers were not stored in sealed containers or were not covered in time after use.

4. After the operator completes work, the frequency of bathing, washing and changing clothes is low, and toxic substances enter the body through contaminated skin or clothing.

5. Some enterprises did not implement security protection measures and did not organize and rectify hidden risks in a timely manner in light of seasonal characteristics.

☆ Occupational Acute Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

Carbon monoxide has a colorless, odorless characteristic that can enter the body through the respiratory tract and cause suffocation. Occupational acute carbon monoxide poisoning refers to a systemic disease that is mainly caused by damage to the central nervous system caused by inhalation of large amounts of carbon monoxide in a short period of time. It is a type of statutory occupational disease.

Contact position

For metallurgical production such as steelmaking and coking, gas production, chemical synthesis such as ammonia, acetone, phosgene, and methanol, use coal stoves, soil, fire walls, and charcoal braziers, and use other coal-fired, gas-fired, and fuel-powered equipment for operations.

Common symptoms

Mild poisoning: Severe headache, dizziness, limb weakness, nausea, vomiting, mild to moderate disturbance of consciousness, blood carboxyhemoglobin concentration higher than 10% .

Moderate poisoning: Consciousness disorders were manifested as mild to moderate coma, recovered after rescue and without significant complications, and the blood carboxyhemoglobin concentration was higher than 30% .

Severe poisoning: cerebral edema, shock or severe myocardial damage, respiratory failure, upper gastrointestinal bleeding, etc. The blood carboxyhemoglobin concentration is higher than 50% .

Late-onset encephalopathy: After spurious relapse, nerves and disturbances of consciousness occur, extraneous neurological disorders such as Parkinson's syndrome, vertebral nerve damage, such as hemiplegia, pathological reflex positive or urinary incontinence; cerebral cortex Focal disability, such as aphasia, blindness, or secondary epilepsy.

Precautions

1. Enterprises should regularly check equipment and trouble spots to prevent leakage of gas furnaces and pipelines.

2. Strengthen the airtightness of the equipment and the ventilation of the workplace, and arrange relevant alarm equipment in the workshop that is easy to produce carbon monoxide.

3. Establish operating procedures and organize operations in strict accordance with regulations. In areas with high carbon monoxide concentrations, guardianship measures must be implemented. Prior to the operation, safety technical disclosure should be carried out. If hot work is required, the hot work permit must be handled, and the professional personnel should monitor the carbon monoxide content to ensure safe operation.

4. The company shall conduct safety training for operating personnel and popularize self-help and mutual rescue knowledge.

5. Operators should do their own safety protection when entering dangerous areas.

6. Persons with severe neurological, cardiovascular, and severe anaemia and older persons should not work in jobs that are prone to produce carbon monoxide.

7. On- duty personnel working in coal-fired workplaces should be alert to carbon monoxide accumulation and cause poisoning, and night duty personnel must strictly follow the requirements for heating.

8. Rescue workers should use self- contained air respirator and carry carbon monoxide alarm and put on protective clothing when they enter a workplace with high carbon monoxide concentration .

9. After finding that the worker is poisoned, he should remove it from the scene of poisoning to a fresh air, loosen his collar, keep it free from breathing, and pay attention to keep warm. Oxygen should be given as soon as possible. After on-site emergency treatment, poisoning personnel should be promptly transferred to hospitals with hyperbaric oxygen therapy conditions.

☆ Organic solvent poisoning

Organic solvents mainly refer to liquids that can dissolve certain substances that are insoluble in water. They are widely used in cleaning, decontamination, dilution, extraction, and other production processes, and some of them can be used as intermediates for chemical synthesis. Organic solvents are almost all primary skin irritants. They have different degrees of irritation to human skin and mucous membranes, as well as carcinogenic and teratogenic toxicity.

There are a wide range of toxic and harmful gases and organic solvent volatile gases in industrial production. Ventilation is an important measure to prevent poisoning. After entering the winter, some companies closed their ventilation facilities to keep warm, closed doors and windows, resulting in poor ventilation of the workplace, accumulation of harmful gases, and prone to occupational poisoning. In addition, organic solvents and chemicals can enter the human body through skin or clothing contact, such as organophosphorus pesticides, benzene's amino and nitro compounds.

Contact position

Paints and paintings for wooden handicrafts and furniture manufacturing, automotive maintenance, organic solvent applications such as artificial leather production, shoemaking, and luggage manufacturing, rubber adhesives, fibers, dyes, detergents, insecticides, etc. .

Common symptoms

Chloromethyl ether: It can cause people to appear tears, sore throat, severe cough, chest tightness, difficulty breathing, fever, chills and other symptoms.

Benzene: Causes headache, nausea, vomiting, confusion, loss of consciousness, coma, convulsions, etc. Severe persons may die due to central nervous system paralysis.

Formaldehyde: Causes redness, itchy eyes, throat discomfort or pain, hoarseness, sneezing, chest tightness, wheezing, etc.

Carbon disulfide: Skin flushing, shortness of breath, nausea, vomiting, severe headache, visual disturbances, confusion, syncope.

Methanol: causes headaches, nausea, stomach pains, tiredness, blurred vision and blindness, and severe cases can cause death from paralysis in the respiratory center.

Toluene: Eyes and upper respiratory tract have obvious irritation, conjunctival and pharyngeal hyperemia, dizziness, headache, nausea, vomiting, chest tightness, weakness in limbs, confusion, severe cases may have restlessness, convulsions, coma and other symptoms.

Acetone: Fatigue, nausea, headache, dizziness, irritability, vomiting, shortness of breath, cramps, and coma. Irritating to eyes, nose and throat.

Ethyl acetate: Irritating to the eyes, nose and throat, and damage to the liver and kidneys. It can cause secondary anemia and leukocytosis.

Precautions

1. Enterprises should strictly control occupational hazards at workplaces, replace non-toxic, low-toxicity and low-toxicity high-toxicity principles, switch to non-toxic or low-toxicity raw materials, and must not use labels, instructions, or manufacturers. The three markers are without raw materials.

2. The workplace should maintain good ventilation, can install exhaust fans, exhaust fans, exhaust hoods, install alarm devices; toxic and hazardous workers must be isolated from other types of work; to strengthen occupational hazards in the workplace monitoring, to ensure compliance with relevant standards.

3. Strengthen the management of the storage and use of organic solvents. Organic solvents are classified and stored in sections, and they should be operated strictly in accordance with the regulations.

4. To fulfill the duty of notification of occupational disease hazards, strengthen safety education, let employees understand the ingredients and hazard characteristics of the chemicals used, and improve their protection capabilities.

5. Implement occupational health checkups, identify occupational contraindications or occupational injuries as soon as possible, and arrange timely diagnosis and treatment for suspected occupational diseases.

6. Equip staff with personal protective equipment and supervise proper use; provide bath facilities for employees and guide them in personal protection.

7. Equipped with emergency equipment and first aid supplies. In the event of an acute occupational poisoning accident, operations should be stopped immediately, ventilation should be maintained, and the organization of rescue operations should be conducted in a safe manner. Report the accident to the local safety supervision department and cooperate with related departments to conduct investigations to avoid further deterioration of the accident.

8. The on-site treatment of acute organic solvent poisoning is the key to rescue. Rescuers should enable poisoned people to break away from the toxic environment as soon as possible, implement cardiopulmonary resuscitation, artificial respiration, and carry out eye- and skin-pollution poison cleaning, etc., and clarify the causes of poisoning as soon as possible so as to provide the basis for the hospital to properly treat poisoning.