The Health and Safety Executive have an online COSHH Essentials webpage.
The University of Reading - Plant Sciences website has a useful online COSHH Chemicals database.

Health and safety - how not to do it
Do not try the following at home alone.

We would request permission for the following if we could identify the original sources ....

• And here are the winners of the competition: safety at work PowerPoint presentation (409KB .ppt file)
      searching for the above title on Google gave six different versions with no credit to the originator !
• Et voici les gagnants de notre grand concours sur la sécurité au travail PowerPoint presentation (2.8MB .pps file) with some repetition of the above.
• Construction workers Windows Media file (3 MB .wmvfile)
• The Galway Car Recovery incident PowerPoint presentation (476KB .ppt file)
• DeWalt power tools Windows Media (500KB .wmv file) - the domain name displayed in this movie is no longer active.
• Hay-baling in East Prairie Windows Media (2.33 MB .wmv file)
• Petrol tanker in Paraguay and mobile-phone-as-a-light (not a cigarette lighter as in some circulating versions) (Windows Media (1.203 MB .wmv file)

Styrene - health and safety

Table 1: Styrene odour and time weighted average occupational exposure levels (OEL)

In the United States, the National Toxicology Program 12th Report on Carcinogens [American Composites Manufacturers Association - Regulatory Bulletin - 23 July 2008] has recommended that styrene be listed as "reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen".

Fibres - health and safety

"There is debate about the hazards associated with glass fibre but currently none of the other [acrylic or polyester] reinforcements are known to be harmful" [9].

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) have adopted threshold limit values (TLV) for man-made mineral fibres during an 8-hour time-weighted average (TWA) exposure of:

• 10 mg/m³ for total dust
• 5 mg/m³ for respirable dust

These control limits correspond to the TLVs for nuisance dust. Care should be taken during the handling of reinforcements to ensure that these levels are not exceeded. Atmospheric monitoring and control measures may be required. General methods for dust sampling are outlined by the HSE [10]. Where exposure to fibre dust cannot be reduced by control measures (dust suppression or local exhaust ventilation), then suitable respiratory protective equipment should be provided [11, 12].

Broken fibres may cause irritation to sensitive areas of skin. Personal cleanliness, keeping dry and careful working habits are the best ways to prevent skin irritation. The use of a barrier cream, talcum powder or protective clothing (which does not induce perspiration) can be helpful. Thorough washing and rinsing should remove loose filaments [13]. Irritation of the upper respiratory tract is also possible. Fibres of <3μm diameter and <200μm length are classified as respirable [14].

A report [15] from DuPont research has suggested that lung tumours can occur in rats exposed to aramid fibres at concentrations over 250 times that in a typical composites workplace. No specific reactions were recorded at lower densities. Dr John Davis of the Institute of Occupational Medicine noted that the rat inhalation studies "were only possible because great ingenuity was used to break up the material and to keep it airborne" [16].

Carbon fibres are electrically conductive and can cause electrical hazard and equipment failure. Electrical equipment should be located remote from potential carbon fibre contamination, should be constructed to be immune to carbon dust, or special procedures (positive pressure of filtered air) must be adopted [13, 17]

The use of fibrous reinforcements in industry should be quite safe, but prudent factory management should always include frequent counts of respirable fibre levels to ensure that they remain low. No factory should use fibrous materials without routine checks on the levels of respirable fibres generated. If the levels of respirable fibres are negligible, then the health hazards should be negligible as well.

1. J May, Solvent odor thresholds for the evaluation of solvent odors in the atmosphere, Staub-Reinhalt, 1966, 26(9), 385-389.
2. JE Amoore and E Hautala, Odor as an aid to chemical safety: odor thresholds compared with threshold limit values and volatilities for 214 industrial chemicals in air and water dilution, Journal of Applied Toxicology, 1983, 3(6), 272-290.
3. BT Åström, Manufacturing of Polymer Composites, Chapman and Hall, London, 1997. ISBN 0-412-81960-0.
4. E Faes , Styrene Industry Recommends Occupational Exposure Limits, Styrene Producers Association letter, undated circa 2011.
5. Norsodyne^® 6417 Version Unsaturated Polyester Resin Technical Data Sheet, Cray Valley, Stallingborough - Lincolnshire, 2005.
6. HSE information sheet: Assessing and controlling styrene levels during contact moulding of fibre-reinforced plastic (FRP) products, Health and Safety Executive Plastics Processing Sheet 14, Sudbury - Suffolk, 2003.
7. Documentation for Immediately Dangerous To Life or Health Concentrations (IDLHs) - Styrene, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta - Georgia, 1994
8. D Hammond, A Garcia and HA Feng, Occupational exposure to styrene vapor in a fiber-reinforced wind blade manufacturing plant, Annals of Occupational Hygiene, 2011, 55(6), 591-600.
9. A guide to health and safety in GRP fabrication, HSE Guide C35, December 1987. ISBN 0-7176-0294-X. #4.
10. General methods for the gravimetric determination of respirable and total dust, HSE Methods for the determination of hazardous substances 14, ISBN 0-7176-0142-0.
11. Certificate of approval (RPE), HSE, 1983 revised F2 486.
12. Recommendation for the selection, use and maintenance of RPE, British Standard BS 4275, 1974.
13. Handling precautions - Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, Carrfibre datasheet - Handling precautions, September 1985.
14. Man-made mineral fibres, HSE Discussion Document, July 1979. ISBN 0-11-883251-4.
15. C Barrie, DuPont aims to calm cancer fears over Kevlar, The Engineer, 19 November 1987, 265, 6-7.
16. JMG Davis, Private communication, 27 May 1988.
17. Carbon dust: health and safety precautions, HSE Environmental Health Guidance Note EH21, January 1979. ISBN 0-11-883181-X.