Two tips for employees of industrial facilities that use powder coatings

Industrial & Manufacturing Blog

If you work at an industrial facility which uses powder coatings and you are frequently tasked with applying these coatings to the facility's products, here are two tips that you should keep in mind.

Don't assume that your respirator will fully protect you

Employees who are assigned tasks which involve the use of powder coatings will always be provided with respirators, in order to minimise the number of toxic dust particles (which contain things like chromates, which can cause pulmonary diseases) that these individuals inhale whilst they perform their work.

However, if you have been asked to apply a powder coating to a specific product, it is extremely important not to assume that your respirator mask will prevent every single particle from entering your lungs, as whilst this piece of safety gear will drastically reduce the quantity of dust that you inhale, it will not provide total protection.

As such, it is still sensible to take additional steps to keep yourself (and your lungs) safe. For example, even after you have put your respirator mask on, you should not place your head too close to the interior of the booth in which the powder coatings are being applied, as this area will contain a large volume of toxic airborne particles.

Likewise, you should still hold the nozzle from which the powder coating is being emitted as far away from your body as is physically possible, even if you are wearing your respirator mask, as there will be a high concentration of toxic particles emerging from this component of the spraying equipment.

Be extremely careful about how you remove your protective outerwear

The protective coveralls that you wear whilst applying the powder coatings will, over the course of the workday, end up covered in a thick film of toxic dust.

It is very important to ensure that you are careful about the way in which you remove this contaminated outwear after you have finished the powder coating application process.

The reason for this is as follows; if you hurriedly remove it in a careless manner, there is a risk that you may end up getting some of the toxic dust on your hands or other areas of exposed skin. If after doing this, you then proceed to eat your lunch with your hands, you could end up ingesting some of this dust and becoming very ill.

As such, it is crucial to remove the coveralls very cautiously. Roll them downwards slowly, making sure to only touch the inside of the material as you do so (as this is the area that is uncontaminated). Then, step out of them and put on some disposable gloves before you pick them up. Following this, place both the outerwear and the gloves in the facility's hazardous waste bin.

26 March 2018