Almost every safety professional on the planet that works with chemicals, emergency response, and confined spaces knows that the Immediately Dangerous to Life and Health (IDLH) exposure is a game changer! But so many also struggle with what it means to actually work in an IDLH atmosphere. In this article, I want to try and explain what it means to respond to an UNCONTROLLED release of a hazardous material/chemical in order to ascertain if the release is
- INCIDENTAL, or
- one that requires an EMERGENCY RESPONSE
OSHA defines incidental as:
a release of a hazardous substance which does not pose a significant safety or health hazard to employees in the immediate vicinity or to the employees cleaning it up, nor does it have the potential to become an emergency within a short time frame
Did you know that OSHA breaks down “uncontrolled releases” into three (3) categories? And it is HOW we decide our uncontrolled release fits which category is what I am going to explain.
- those that are “purely incidental”
- those that “may be incidental or require emergency response depending on the circumstances” and
- “releases requiring an emergency response
In order to establish which category our release falls into, we MUST ALWAYS ASSUME the uncontrolled release is hazardous UNTIL such time we have RELIABLE DATA that says otherwise!
Here is the scenario and how this scenario gets measured and managed when it falls into these three(3) categories:
There is a leak of an HHC/EHS in a room with workers. This HHC/EHS has excellent warning properties and this allows the workers to recognize there is a leak and they exit the room and report the release. You are called to “find the leak” in the room.