An example of a person who lost their life due to being exposed to toxic agents is a worker at Buffalo Wild Wings in Burlington. The fumes that were toxic were caused by a combination of common cleaning agents. The member of staff used a cleansing agent known as Super 8 that contains Sodium Hypochlorite. Unfortunately, an acid known as Scale Kleen had earlier spilled onto the floor. The mixture of Sodium Hypochlorite and Scale Kleen formed a green component which started forming bubbles. As a result of this, the employee started experiencing complications in breathing and irritation in their eyes but luckily they were able to escape the area. However, the company manager later on tried to mop the mixture away but he developed solemn symptoms which caused his demise.
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Prevention of lethal contacts of toxic substances is concerned with averting the fumes from reaching individuals in quantities that surpass human tolerance to the chemicals. It consists of recognizing and assessing the causes of poisoning, making predictions about their frequency and putting into practice actions envisioned to decrease the severity in health effects after being in contact with a toxic chemical. In this case, the type of prevention that should be used is the secondary prevention of poison. It involves the action that should have been taken after the manager was exposed to the toxic fumes thus preventing them from progressing to a solemn period thereby reinstating him to a healthier state of health. Mechanisms that can be implemented to prevent similar deaths and injury include labeling.
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Labelling products are an important part of exposure prevention, providing the employer with information concerning the nature of the chemical, substance recognition and guidance in case they get exposed. Also, another way that would have helped to prevent this death is proper ventilation of the rooms. The importance of having well ventilated rooms is that there is maximum and continuous supply of fresh air and explosion risks are reduced. Also, aeriation is usually used to get rid of toxins such as fumes thus providing a healthy and nontoxic operational atmosphere. In addition, before the manager decided to enter and mop the room he should have worn protective garments that would have aided in reducing his exposure to the chemicals.
Personal protective equipment is a gear an employee wears to reduce their exposure to toxic fumes that may result to serious injuries in the workplace or in worst scenarios deaths of the workers. Most work stations use the PPE approach for protecting the safety and health of their employees (SAWADA et.al., 2017). The PPEs that should have been used include face and eye protections such as face shields and safety googles will provide the protection that is needed for both the eye and the face. Secondly, respiration protection such as respirators are important especially on areas where toxic agents are available since they are made to protect one from inhaling toxic chemicals that would result to permanent damage. Thirdly, gloves are also important since they aid in avoiding risks caused when the employee has direct contact with the chemicals. The contact bounds of Scale Kleen is 0 while on the other hand that of Sodium Hypochlorite which is more deadly is 0.5 ppm.
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According to Friss (2016), there are various approaches that have been established to upsurge occupational protection and decrease exposure to risks through restructuring the work environs, regulating exposures to substance agents and introduction of engineering controls. A vital problem for work-related health investigation is describing exposures to possible hazardous agents found in the place of work and delimiting the impacts of this contacts.
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