In an eventful week for the Hanford Site tank farms, unions issued a list of demand for better worker protection against chemical vapors and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) agreed to conduct a safety and health evaluation of the chemical vapors situation.
On Monday, the Hanford Atomic Metal Trades Council (HAMTC) issued a list of demands for better worker protection from chemical vapors associated with waste held in the Department of Energy site’s underground storage tanks. Demands include significantly increased requirements for use of supplied air respirators and moving all work that could cause chemical vapors emissions to evening, night, or weekend shifts when fewer workers are on-site.
Vapors have been an issue at Hanford for at least 20 years, but workers continue to suffer adverse health effects, said HAMTC in a letter listing its demands that was sent to DOE and its tank farm contractor. On Monday, another worker received a medical check for possible exposure to chemical vapors, bringing the number of personnel receiving medical evaluations since late April to about 53.
“The council firmly believes that more immediate actions need to be taken in order to prevent further exposures or potential exposures to the workforce,” the letter said. HAMTC is an umbrella group for 15 unions doing Hanford work. In total it represents about 2,600 workers.
The group has not indicated what it will do if demands are not met quickly. However, stop work orders can be called by union officials or workers who do not believe operations can be conducted safely. Stop work orders can be lifted by consensus of the contractor and HAMTC. As the tank farm contractor, Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS), evaluates the demands, and it “will work with the union and the Department of Energy to determine a path forward to safely and efficiently continue our important mission,” said WRPS President Mark Lindholm in a message to employees.
HAMTC is demanding that a vapor control zone be extended at least 200 feet beyond the fences surrounding the tank farms during all work that could potentially cause chemical vapor emissions, such as work to sample, mix, or transfer waste. Use of supplied air respirators is required in vapor control zones. HAMTC also would require supplied air respirators for all work done inside tank farm fences, even if the tasks are not known to potentially increase the risk of vapors.
The HAMTC demands also include ending the use of 60-minute cylinders carried by workers for their supplied air respirators, which are heavier than 30-minute cylinders. “In addition, more emphasis should be placed on acquiring alternative supplied air respirators such as re-breathers, lighter cylinders, and more advanced equipment and ergonomically designed harnesses,” the letter said.
The labor group also included in the letter a list of improvements that it strongly recommended. They include faster turnaround times for waste sampling results, improved medical and first aid coverage by the Hanford health care provider; improved monitoring equipment; and relocating all nonessential personnel, equipment, and office trailers away from tank farms and out of the expanded vapor control zones that HAMTC demanded.
“The council believes our demands are not unachievable nor unreasonable,” the HAMTC letter said. The organization said it understands there may be unique circumstances, such as emergencies or the need to continue critical operations, that would prevent strict adherence to its demands and recommendations. In those circumstances, HAMTC said it expects to be consulted before the work starts to provide reasonable alternatives.
WRPS responded a day later, saying it will consider in good faith HAMTC’s demands. However, as it evaluates the demands it will keep in mind “any changes in approach must be implementable, such that work can continue in a manner that makes a positive difference in worker health and safety.”
Lindholm sent a letter to the labor organization on Tuesday after he and HAMTC President Dave Molnaa met to discuss the demands.
He defended WRPS’ efforts to keep workers safe, saying the contractor has taken increasingly more aggressive steps to improve engineering controls, administrative controls, enhanced monitoring, and personal protective equipment. “Throughout the WRPS contract period, we have ensured that personnel are protected,” he said in the letter to HAMTC.
But despite WRPS’s best efforts, some workers continue to express concerns associated with odors, he said. The odors may be from chemical vapors associated with waste held in underground tanks. WRPS has consistently maintained safe worker breathing zones with air quality well within the standards used by industry, including the occupational exposure limits used in the nuclear and petrochemical industries, Lindholm said.
WRPS continues to make improvements, working over the last 18 months to implement recommendations from the independent Hanford Tank Vapor Assessment Team, which was led by the Savannah River National Laboratory. WRPS has worked with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to test and develop monitoring technology, including a mobile laboratory that can be used to “chase” suspected vapor plumes, Lindholm said. It has improved its industrial hygiene program to more closely resemble the rigor and stature of Hanford’s radiological material controls programs, he said. If fieldwork proceeds as planned, WRPS should be in position by the end of the current fiscal year to implement a comprehensive vapor strategy that takes monitoring to a new level.
NIOSH, a branch of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, plans to conduct a short-term, focused evaluation of chemical vapor programmatic areas. No schedule has been released, but DOE sent NIOSH information on planning and work it might want to observe as part of its evaluation from now through October. The planning and work included characterization of chemicals in the head space of tanks and an evaluation of the bolus theory — that workers might be being exposed to short, but intense, releases of chemical vapors.
DOE’s two top Hanford managers — Stacy Charboneau of the Richland Operations Office and Kevin Smith of the Office of River Protection — have told NIOSH that DOE will ensure it has the access it needs to records, data, and personnel, including workers, managers, and medical staff.
The evaluation is planned to focus on four programmatic areas: medical, exposure assessment, safety and health management, and exposure control. It will review policies and procedures for evaluating worker health concerns, including looking at what medical monitoring is done and how clinical assessments of potentially exposed workers are conducted. DOE officials already have been seeking advice and guidance from NIOSH experts, including asking for a professional assessment of the potential development of a study looking at symptoms reported by workers who may have been exposed to vapors. NIOSH responded with a recommendation for a clinical review of affected workers and their records. NIOSH will work with Hanford officials on that project as part of the planned evaluation of tank vapor issues.
As part of the newly announced evaluation’s focus on exposure assessment, NIOSH will review programs for monitoring workers, including the development of vapor sampling strategies, response to worker concerns, and management of data to analyze trends. It will review policies and operational procedures for risk communication and interactions between workers and management as part of its review of safety and health program management. As part of its review of exposure control, it will look at the overall vapor control strategy, including the development and use of engineering controls and personal protection equipment.
The plan for a NIOSH review drew praise from Washington state’s senators and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.). “Bringing in an independent team of experts to make sure workers are being protected is a strong step in the right direction. I will be closely following this process to ensure this evaluation provides the guidance necessary to keep workers safe,” said Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) in a statement.
Wyden said his meeting in May with some tank farm workers made clear to him how much an independent review was needed. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) said the decision would increase transparency and identify ways to improve health and safety procedures at Hanford.
The head of a local activist group was skeptical the planned NIOSH review would catalyze significant changes to either DOE or contractor policies about vapor protection.
“An independent look’s always good, but it’s not going to protect workers,” Tom Carpenter, executive director of Hanford Challenge, said in a Thursday telephone interview. “The only thing that’s going to work is reforming their behaviors, expanding their vapor control zones, requiring supplied air, and working on some engineering control down the road where they actual capture and filter the vapors.”
Hanford Challenge plans a town hall forum about vapor issues at the site on June 29 at the Pasco Local 598 Union Hall in Pasco, Wash. Union leaders and Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson will attend, according to Hanford Challenge’s website.
