Findings and Recommendations - Occupational Health and Workplace Monitoring at Chemical Agent Disposal Facilities - page 27

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Findings and Recommendations

The following findings and recommendations on
occupational health and workplace chemical monitor-
ing at CSDP facilities are based on the review described
in Chapters 1 through 4 of this report.

Finding 2c. Advances in monitoring technology could
reduce response times and/or false positive alarm rates
and could possibly make simultaneous monitoring of
different agents feasible. This could reduce the risk of
worker exposure during both disposal and closure op-
erations. Finding 1. Consistent with the Stockpile Committee's

prior recommendation that the CSDP use technology
that will minimize overall risk to the public and to the
workers at each site, protecting the health and well-
being of the workforce at chemical agent disposal fa-
cilities is an overarching priority, on a par with protec-
tion of the public health and safety.

Finding 2d. Workplace monitoring for nonagent-re-
lated chemicals is conducted on an as needed basis as
part of the industrial hygiene program.

Recommendation 2a. The Army should continue to
pursue improvements in airborne agent monitoring,
including improved ACAMS technology (for multi-
agent monitoring and lower false alarm rates), and in
methods for identifying interferents that cause false
alarms. It should also pursue new analytical techniques
that could lead to real-time agent detection.

Recommendation 1. The Army should continue to se-
lect technologies and implement programs at disposal
facilities that ensure the expeditious disposal of the
chemical agents and munitions stockpile and minimize
overall risk to workers and the public at each site.

Finding 2a. Current workplace monitoring systems for
chemical agents are generally adequate for normal op-
erations but may have serious deficiencies during acci-
dents or departures from nominal operating conditions.
Potential employee exposures as a result of process
upsets and/or accidents can be detected by existing
monitoring systems, but not in real time.

Recommendation 2b. The Army should consider
developing the capability of reviewing and analyzing
agent monitoring data from several or all sites at the
programmatic level.

Finding 3. Some chemical agent reaction products
from surface hydrolysis or produced in liquid-phase
process streams can be almost as toxic as the parent
agent and more resistant to degradation. Standard tech-
nology used in routine operations for detecting the pres-
ence of agent generally does not detect decomposition

Finding 2b. Currently, ACAMS and DAAMS data are
available electronically, but only at the operating site
where agent measurements were made.

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