Hartford, Conn. - The Industrial Hygiene Laboratory of St. Paul Travelers has added a state-of-the-art instrument that helps customers address OSHA's proposed lowering of the Permissible Exposure Limit (PEL) for hexavalent chromium (CrVI). St. Paul Travelers purchased this instrument to help its customers better protect their employees and reduce workers compensation losses.Hexavalent chromium (CrVI) is a human carcinogen for which OSHA has proposed a 50x reduction in the PEL from the current standard. The new Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer (ICP-MS) has enabled the Industrial Hygiene Laboratory to develop a method for the analysis of CrVI below OSHA's proposed PEL.
Marcel Baril, laboratory director at St. Paul Travelers, says, "The goal of the Industrial Hygiene Laboratory is to help assess employee exposures and work toward the prevention of occupational illnesses and workers compensation losses. Current methods of detecting contaminants are far less sensitive and require much more time to carry out. We are thrilled to be able to bring this new level of analytical sophistication to our customers."
The ICP-MS can simultaneously measure most elements in the periodic table at extremely low levels. Of primary concern are metals that may be toxic to the human body such as mercury, lead, arsenic, cadmium and beryllium. Besides its greater sensitivity, the ICP-MS permits rapid analysis of multiple elements in a matter of minutes, where previous technology required lengthy, labor-intensive serial analysis.
Robert Brody, senior vice president of risk control, claims that this new capability gives St. Paul Travelers' customers the most complete picture of their employee exposures that any carrier can offer today.
Source: St. Paul Travelers
