Company news from Fibreoptic Industry Association
Date: 1 November 2002 • Company contact details
Guides to fibre-optic waste and chemicals
Two new technical support documents from the Fibreoptic Industry Association address the handling of processing chemicals and the disposal of waste shards.
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The Fibreoptic Industry Association's Technical Support Document 2000-5-2 covers the procedures to be adopted and the precautions to be taken during the use and subsequent disposal of the potentially hazardous substances commonly used in the fibre-optic industry.
These range from filling compounds used during the manufacture of fibre cable, adhesives, polishing and cleaning compounds used during fibre termination and cleaning and degreasing compounds used during maintenance of the completed cables or patch cords.
Recommendations are made as to the best practices to be adopted, the review and implementation of COSHH programmes and appropriate occupational exposure limits defined by the Health and Safety Executive and the RIDDOR reporting requirements.
The guide will save time previously spent in crossreferring to various different standards.
Technical Support Document 200-5-3 deals specifically with the precautions to be taken to guard against injury from the fibre-optic shards necessarily produced during the termination or splicing of fibre-optic cables.
Being very small and sharp, optical fibre shards can easily penetrate the skin, causing pain, irritation and inflammation; as they are transparent to X-rays they can be very difficult to locate and remove if they do penetrate the skin.
The transparent shards can also be unknowingly carried on the skin and subsequently transferred to the eyes or mouth.
The guide selects BS EN50174 as the basis of the further recommendations set out as a code of practice to be followed to avoid injury to personnel.
The FIA Code of Practice covers the handling precautions, protective equipment and disposal methods to be used when working with fibre-optic cables.
The guides are available by download from the FIA website, on CD or as hard copy.
They are free to FIA members; they cost GBP 15 each to nonmembers.
Editor's note: If you would like Fibreoptic Industry Association to send you a free brochure or catalogue about its products or services, please click here.
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