July 24, 2002 -- In light of the recent tragedies in Des Moines, Iowa and Ladson, South Carolina involving the deaths of two workers at each location and the serious injury of others, safety in and around sewers is in the forefront of everyone's minds.
Although some monitoring was taking place, in both cases the workers were overcome by unvented and undetected naturally occurring deadly gases commonly found in sewers throughout the world.
Over the past several years there has been an on-going controversy in the industry regarding the need for federally-accredited Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory (NRTL) certification of electrical devices utilized in sewer maintenance, inspection and rehabilitation.
The focus of the debate, however, has been centered on video pipeline inspection equipment or CCTV inspection cameras, according to video inspection equipment maker Pearpoint.
In the spring of 2001, the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration (CAL OSHA) issued a memorandum to CCTV operators requiring the use of only NRTL approved equipment that had been certified for use in Class I, Division 1 environments.
After much protest by members of the industry, which included manufacturers of non-NRTL, approved inspection equipment, non-compliant municipalities and contractors, as well as NASSCO, CAL OSHA revised its original memorandum.
The revised document issued in October 2001 allowed for the self-certification of electrical equipment used for CCTV inspection. Class I, Division 1 environment classification was treated as a separate issue.
Because California's allowance of self-certification vs. NRTL-only certification did not appear to be in compliance with Federal OSHA standards, a CASPA (Complaint About State Program Administration) was filed with the San Francisco office of Federal OSHA.
There have been many news releases and statements circulated throughout the industry and trade publications regarding this CASPA complaint.
The bulk of these documents contain factual inaccuracies or information has been misconstrued for the author's own purposes, Pearpoint said.
In the opinion of Pearpoint, some of these releases serve no purpose other than to needlessly scare the public about safety issues that concern everyone in the industry.
To set the record straight, Pearpoint has said the CASPA complaint only dealt with the fact that California's OSH program was not in conformance with federal standards in the area of electrical safety.
Fed OSHA requires NRTL listing of all electrical equipment used in workplaces, including sewer locations. On June 21, 2002, Federal OSHA issued a favorable decision on the CASPA directing California to bring its state program up to federal standards.
In the future, this will mean that all electrical sewer equipment used in California sewers will have to be labeled and listed by an accredited laboratory such as an NRTL. This is currently the law in all other states.
Federal OSHA supporting documentation is available upon request from Pearpoint.
Pearpoint manufacturers a complete line of NRTL approved, labeled and listed video pipeline inspection equipment that is in compliance with all federal and state regulations for workplace and worker safety.
This press release was provided by Pearpoint.
For additional information please contact:
Suzan Marie Chin, Director of Marketing, Pearpoint, Inc. 760.343.7350 x-233
[email protected]
