Personal Protective Equipment

							Personal Protective Equipment
1.   LP-Gas transfer training: 8 CCR ' 472(a). Filling of LP-Gas
     (propane) fueled lift trucks shall be restricted to qualified attendants.
     The qualified attendant=s instructions shall be in writing and shall be
     documented including the signatures of the instructor and student
     and shall be based on at least a certain set of specified instructions
     (see Appendix P).

2.   Used lifelines: 8 CCR ' 1670(f). Safety belts, lanyards and lifelines
     subjected to in-service loading shall immediately be removed from
     service and shall not be used again for employee fall arresting
     devices. Ensure that ropes (lifelines) used with safety belts are
     either new or dedicated to the fall arrest equipment.

3.   Approved personal protective equipment (PPE): 8 CCR ' 3380(a).
     Head, eye, body, hand, and foot protection shall be of the proper
     type for the exposure and of such design, strength and quality as to
     eliminate, preclude or mitigate the hazard. Note: In order that safety
     devices or safeguards, which may include personal protective
     equipment, be acceptable as to proper type, design, strength and
     quality they shall be at least equivalent to those complying with the
     standards approved by The American National Standards Institute,
     Bureau of Standards, or other recognized authorities, except that
     where no authoritative standard exists for a safety device or
     safeguard, the use of such safeguard or safety device shall be
     subject to inspection and acceptance or rejection by the Division.

4.   Personal protective equipment use: 8 CCR ' 3380(c). Workers shall
     be instructed and use PPE according to the manufacturer=s
     instructions and product labels.

5.   Personal protective equipment condition: 8 CCR ' 3380(d). The
     employer shall assure that employee-owned personal protective
     equipment complies with standards and regulations prescribed in
     Title 8. The employer shall assure this equipment is maintained in a
     safe, sanitary condition.

6.   Head protection: 8 CCR ' 3381(a). Employees subject to falling
     objects and burns shall be safeguarded by approved head
     protection. Typical cotton gin activities do not require approved head
     protection, i.e. hard hats. Even though bump caps are considered
     no different (from a regulatory standpoint) than straw hats or
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      baseball caps, experience has shown the bump cap to be effective in
      preventing bumps, scratches and burns and are therefore suggested
      to control potential workers' compensation claims. This is particularly
      true if your gin has many low overhead obstructions.

7.    Eye and face protection: 8 CCR ' 3382(a). Eye protection shall be
      worn during compressed blow down, grinding activity and welding.
      The necessity for requiring eye and face protection during typical
      ginning operations should be based upon supervisory judgment
      considering the following indicators: at the press when bale ties are
      breaking or a particularly dusty bale packaging is being used, and
      during extreme environmental conditions such as wind-blown dust.

8.    Loose clothing: 8 CCR ' 3383(b). Clothing appropriate for the work
      being done shall be worn. Loose sleeves, tails, ties, lapels, cuffs, or
      other loose clothing which can become entangled in machinery shall
      not be worn.

9.    Prohibited glove use: 8 CCR ' 3384(b). Hand protection, such as
      gloves, shall not be worn where there is a danger of the protection
      becoming entangled in machinery or material. Press workers and
      others wearing gloves must remove them when working around
      saws or helping to unchoke at feed rollers, chains and sprockets, etc.

10.   Jewelry: 8 CCR ' 3386(a). Wrist watches, rings, or other jewelry
      should not be worn around machinery in which such objects may be
      caught, or around electrically energized equipment.

11.   PPE sanitation: 8 CCR ' 3387. Personal protective equipment shall
      be capable of being cleaned easily and disinfected. The protectors
      shall be kept clean and in good repair. Safety devices, including
      protective clothing, shall not be interchanged among employees until
      properly cleaned.

12.   Fall protection: 8 CCR ' 1670(a). Approved safety belts and
      lanyards shall be used by all employees whose work exposes them
      to falling in excess of 7.5 feet. The lanyard is to be securely
      anchored to a location that would limit the fall to 4 feet. Preplan the
      gin and install eye bolts or other anchors where a worker might be
      expected to tie off a safety belt. No make-shift belts are allowed.
      Catenary lines or horizontal life lines should be used on roof
      operations such as cleaning the roof following the ginning season. If
      a second worker holds the opposite end of a life line, the life line
      should be looped around a substantial support to enable playing out
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      the line as necessary and for quick response to a sudden tensioning
      of the life line. Ropes and other lines used for lifting any other load
      shall not be used as a lifeline.

13.   Control of noise exposure: 8 CCR ' 5095(a). The scope of this
      standard excludes agricultural operations from the hearing
      conservation program - ' 5097, hearing protectors - ' 5098, noise
      training program - ' 5099 and noise recordkeeping - ' 5100. Cotton
      gins, for the purpose of this regulation, are considered agriculture.
      However contradictory, 8 CCR ' 5096(b) requires that when
      employees are subjected to sound levels exceeding 90 decibels,
      averaged over 8 hours, feasible engineering or administrative (time
      management) controls shall be utilized. Where this is infeasible,
      personal protective equipment shall be provided and used.
      Federally, gins have been cited under the general duty clause. This
      has not been applied in California. If there is reason to believe your
      gin is either significantly quieter or noisier than most gins, a noise
      screening survey is advisable for both OSHA compliance and
      workers' compensation claims control. Hearing protection is always
      recommended while the gin is operating for those operating suction
      pipes and working inside the gin.

14.   Respiratory protective equipment: 8 CCR ' 5144(a). Approved
      respirators shall be provided and employees shall use the respirators
      when exposed to harmful dusts, mists, fumes, vapors or gases.
      Common cotton gin operations including spray painting and welding
      do not typically exceed the permissible 8-hour exposure limit.
      Certain uncommon operations may require protection. The exposure
      to cotton dust in the cotton gin has been excluded from the
      substance specific cotton dust standard, 8 CCR ' 5190, that applies
      to other cotton industry segments, e.g. textile mills, cottonseed
      processing, garnetting, etc. California gin worker health studies
      substantiate that there is not a significant risk of material health
      impairment due to cotton dust in the cotton gin. However, because
      of the gin's association with regulated cotton dust operations, if
      respirators are provided, prudence suggests that only approved
      respirators should be provided in the cotton industry. Approved
      respirators are those approved by the National Institute for
      Occupational Safety and Health. Single-use, disposable dust masks
      with two straps can be such approved respirators for nuisance dusts;
      cotton dust in gins would be considered a nuisance dust. Look for
      the NIOSH approval on the box when purchasing dust masks. See
      Appendix F, Cotton Gin Respiratory Program.

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15.   Label required protection: 8 CCR ' 5229. Employers shall provide
      the personal protective equipment as indicated by a product label
      and shall instruct employees in its proper use. Consider all products
      including weed killers, insect sprays, penetrating fluids, degreasers,
      etc.




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