A breath of fresh air: Georgia producers chip away at a potential silicosis problem

Concrete Producer, The, Nov, 2004 by Rick Yelton

There's a new breeze in the air when it comes to safety. Safety professionals like Jim Simpson, Jon Swierenga, and Paul Fly believe common safety problems need to be shared before they can he solved.

On issues like job-specific silica exposure, developing a cooperative approach, and enlisting the help of experts is much more efficient than ignoring a problem or trying to solve it alone. It was in this cooperative spirit that these Atlanta-area producers took a proactive approach to solve what they thought could become a serious liability.

One catalyst for the attitude change has been Simpson, vice president of risk management at Walker Concrete in Stockbridge, Ga. He has championed several initiatives to help solve local safety concerns. Fly, plant manager at Walker Concrete's plant in Palmetto, Ga., works closely with Simpson.

Increasing safety statewide also has been an increasing government priority. Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue recently appointed Simpson as a member-at-large to the Compliance Advisory Panel, where he will help firms develop better relationships with OSHA. "I help convince firms it's more profitable to cooperate in solving safety and environmental deficiencies than to spend resources to kill the messenger," says Simpson.

Simpson also serves on the advisory board for Project Safe Georgia, a coalition of businesses, government agencies, and academics united to make the state safer and free from environmental problems. Doug Walker, president of Walker Concrete, is the chairman.

It's been an eye-opening experience. "I've discovered there's a dedicated group of health professionals willing to learn the intricacies of a problem, and then work to develop a solution," Simpson says.

With Simpson's help, the Georgia Concrete & Products Association created an adhoc committee of Atlanta-area safety professionals to develop a safer approach to concrete chipping. The committee found a willing partner and now is poised to release what its members believe is the most current best-practice in cleaning hardened concrete in an enclosed space.

Swierenga, the director of safety for Lafarge Construction Materials, Southeast, urges an industry-wide effort, or a fresh approach to the problem. "Ultimately, ready-mixed concrete producers, admixture suppliers, and mixer-drum manufacturers need to evaluate current practices and designs to look to the future to implement even better methods to reduce concrete build-up in drums, and eliminate the hazardous job of drum chipping altogether," he explains.

Harder than It looks

The Georgia research effort was led by Art Wickman, a research scientist and hygienist with the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) in Atlanta. GTRI is the nonprofit, applied research arm of the university. It has more than 200 clients and performs more than $100 million in research across a wide range of industries.

OSHA is one of the institute's more prominent clients. The federal agency provides funding for GTRI to assist firms in upgrading their safety programs with non-binding, on-site investigations, training programs, and technical resources.

Wickman's interest in preventing silicosis-related health problems started before his work on concrete chipping. The Central Missouri State University graduate accepted the GTRI job to help solve a major problem in the granite stone monument industry. He had been working to minimize exposure to sandblasters and carvers. So it was natural for him to turn his expertise to the silica problem found in chipping concrete.

Under Wickman's guidance, GTRI was awarded a Susan Harwood Training Grant to develop a training program to instruct employees on how to safely chip concrete from ready-mixed truck drams. GTRI will soon publish a CD-ROM on chipping concrete safely. Wickman plans to mail copies to all state and national concrete organizations, and will post a version to download from the Internet.

Jeff Taylor, president of Coast2Coast, a Petersburg, Ky., chipping contractor, agrees with Wickman about the need to improve chipping practices. At first, many producers viewed chippers as an inexpensive way to solve problems in driver morale or as a way to increase truck availability. Fleet managers were only concerned that the tracks were ready in the morning. "Drivers park their trucks in areas far from the plant, with an out of sight, out of mind attitude," says Taylor.

But with OSHA's special emphasis of protecting workers from crystalline silica, producers are hesitant to hire contractors who can't prove they conform to OSHA standards. "They now recognize producers have the same legal responsibility to protect contractors as they do their own employees," says Taylor.

Guarding assets

Swierenga is a relative newcomer to the ready-mixed concrete industry. Yet he has a legacy of guarding important company assets. He previously had a similar job with an armored car company.

Swierenga has worked closely with his chipping contractor to develop a more efficient method to reduce employee exposure to silica-laden dust. "Our division has taken the attitude that we need to protect any person who works for us--employees and contractors," he says. All workers chipping out concrete mixer drums must follow OSHA recommendations.