OSHA Guidlines?

[KenW.]

Does anyone know what OSHA regs are out there to protect those of use who are routinely exposed to the hazards that may be during an eviction? Those of us that do them every day see a lot of potential exposures to various hazards. Human and animal waste (fecal material and excess dander primarily), molds (I've seen black, green and red myself), controlled substances/meth labs, etc. Is the Sheriff supposed to provide protective gear to me?

I have to purchase my own shoe covers, vinyl gloves, dust masks, and paper coveralls. I'm very cautious to not do anything to cause these hazards to become airborne, but the exposure still concerns me sometimes.

[Shaver]

there are both federal and state guidelines regarding this. I would look into the state guidelines first, see if they apply, then check the federal guidelines. MIOSHA(Michigan's guidelines) would most likely mandate that the equipment is provided to you by the agency. If you cannot find the information anywhere, contact the agency itself. The times I had to deal with them, they have been very helpful. the federal agency is www.osha.gov

[KenW.]

My biggest obstacle is that my "workplace" varies depending on the address of the home I'm working in; therefore testing / sampling cannot be conducted. Workplace testing can't be done everyplace.

With few exceptions, my State defers to the OSHA rules.

I haven't run across a working lab yet, I've found what one may consider "inoperative" or abandonded labs. In which case I call in the narcs for thier assistance.

[4900]

Cal. Code of Regulations Title 8, Section 3203(a)4. 8CCR 3203(a)(4)
Give it a shot, it dealts with employers responsibility to provide adequate safety and related equipment.

[SCConstable2004]

29 CFR 1910.132 (OSHA's General Industry Standard) addresses personal protective equipment and states that the employer must provide required PPE to protect it's employees, although it does not state that it must provide it at no cost to the employee. The intent was that the employer would foot the bill, but poor wording muddied the waters. If you are injured, and the PPE was not provided, guess who OSHA is going to nail. It won't be you.

OSHA has introduced some modifications to this to clarrify that the employer must provide PPE at no cost to the employee, but this is still pending and probably will be for a while.

FWIW - I'm a Safety & Env. Engineer in my day job, so I might be right on this one :-)