Kathy,
The only way to know for sure what the risks are for your specific operation is to do the risk assessment. You said “spraying pobio [potentially biohazardous]
materials as a testing/mfg process”
plus you mentioned “possible aerosolization of viral particles (Hepatitis, HIV, etc)” … seems (to me, anyway) to introduce a risk that’s definitely > 0. If employees aren’t
using at least N95s, then your facility must have some exceptionally good engineering in place.
If your facility were operating in California, then the information you shared would trigger writing a facility-specific Aerosolized Transmissible Disease (ATD)
plan. Not that you need to do that of course, because your facility is located in Illinois. I only mention it because you asked, and it might be interesting to the list how some jurisdictions might weigh in on this subject.
From appendix D of
=A75199. Aerosol Transmissible Diseases,
Retroviruses, including Human and Simian Immunodeficiency viruses (HIV and SIV) (activities with high potential for aerosol or droplet production, large quantities or high concentrations)
And
Hepatitis B, C, and D viruses (activities with high potential for droplet or aerosol generation, large quantities or high concentrations of infectious materials)
The Cal OSHA ATD rules are the respiratory disease version of the BBP rules. And the persistent rumor has it that the ATD rules will spread to the rest of
the country like H1N1.
Eric Clark, MS, CHMM, CCHO
Safety Officer, Public Health Scientist III
Los Angeles County Public Health Laboratory
From: DCHAS-L Discussion List [mailto:dchas-l**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU]
On Behalf Of John Palmer
Sent: Thursday, April 10, 2014 11:18 AM
To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] low pressure spraying of potentially biohazardous materials
Kathy - I think you need to give the list a bit of insight into "POBIO" - I was assuming you mean the Mitsubishi term for the resins/chemicals/materials harvested from "biological sources" (which is a far cry from what most of us usually
think of as "Potentially Biohazardous" - still - does require some consideration of best practices for recombinant DNA/infectious agents research...
On Thu, Apr 10, 2014 at 11:06 AM, Kathy Rusniak <kathy**At_Symbol_Here**nano-cytomics.com> wrote:
Hi Patty,
I'm trying to determine whether spraying pobio materials as a testing/mfg process would present any significant health risk or require any specific containment device due to possible aerosolization of viral particles (Hepatitis, HIV, etc).
On Thu, Apr 10, 2014 at 12:16 PM, Olinger, Patricia L <patty.olinger**At_Symbol_Here**emory.edu> wrote:
Hi Kathy, what specifically are you looking for?
Patty
Sent from my iPad
> On Apr 10, 2014, at 1:08 PM, "Kathy Rusniak" <kathy**At_Symbol_Here**NANO-CYTOMICS.COM> wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> I'm researching the hazards and regulations governing the spraying of potentially biohazardous materials. So far I'm finding that aerosolization of pobio liquids is not considered a likely route of distributing viral particles (Hepatitis, HIV, etc), at least
regarding existing technologies (such as dialysis) that have been studied. Does anyone have experience with this issue or know of specific regulations or sources of information that relate to this issue?
>
> Thank you,
> Kathy
>
