Frankly, all paint booth operators should have a mixing room on-site —and most shops are required to have one. Even the smallest shops could benefit from the enhanced worker safety and a cleaner work environment that a mixing room adds to your shop. Mixing rooms are a part of your overall operation that many shop owners overlook, but it is also potentially the most hazardous area in your shop.
Hazardous Chemical in Paint Booths is Leading Cause of Occupational Asthma in U.S.
Working in a refinishing and collision repair center, you know that you are handling noxious and flammable chemicals that have the potential to cause serious health problems. One chemical in solvents used in paint booth operations in particular has been found to be the leading cause of occupational asthma in the U.S.
Like people who worked in construction decades ago who were poisoned by asbestos that caused lung cancer, too much exposure to Isocyanates contained in paints leads to asthma and other health risks. Surprisingly, the biggest danger of this kind of exposure to workers is not inside of the paint booth but in your mixing room.
EPA Partners with Shop Owners to Combat Hazardous Mixing Room Environments
Possibly because most of the efforts in the past have been focused on increasing worker safety inside of the paint booth mixing rooms have been largely overlooked. When operating a paint booth, workers protect themselves with goggles, gloves, ventilation systems, and protective clothing. Yet when it comes to working inside of mixing rooms, too many shops don’t treat it with the same caution, often maintaining mixing rooms without proper ventilation or protocols for protecting workers from noxious fumes.
In an effort to reduce the dangers presented by these chemicals, the EPA has partnered with shop owners in Philadelphia to zero in on the areas of commercial paint operations where exposure is most likely in order to develop protocols and recommend protective equipment to combat these health risks.
Proper Ventilation is Key to Worker Safety for Paint Booth Operators
Most paint booths have multiple ventilation mechanisms largely focused inside of the paint booth. Within the booth, you typically have direct air pushing clean air in through filters and sucking contaminated air out.
But in your mixing room, general exhaust ventilation is typically the only ventilation mechanism. The problem with that is general ventilation only dilutes the air. Hazardous fumes are still getting in. Every day your workers are inhaling a lot of those diluted chemicals, which in turn results in health problems.
Improperly Configured Mixing Rooms Create the Biggest Safety Hazard
Ventilation is the biggest problem with mixing rooms. But the way that your mixing rooms are configured also creates risks to your health. For instance, if you have exhaust fans in your mixing room but they are pushing air from the ceiling down to the floor, those fumes are mixing in with the clean air before it is exhausted out.
Since chemical fumes are heavier than CO2, the air that is being exhausted is not capturing much of the vapors caused by the paint chemicals. Perhaps your exhaust fans push the air up from the floor out through the ceiling. Even though the vents are pushing the heavy chemical fumes upward, workers are still exposed as the fans blow the hazardous fumes are still inhaled as they pass by workers on their way up and out.
EPA Mixing Room Safety Recommendations
While the EPA is still studying the problem with mixing room safety the agency has come up with a list of recommendations to improve worker safety. Some of these things you already do for your booth operators. Now you must institute some of the same protocols for your mixing rooms too:
- Wear Protective Gear – Just like your paint booth operators, when working in the mixing room, workers should be required to wear protective (chemical resistant) gloves, protective clothes like overalls, eye protectors, and respirators or face masks.
- Keep Mixing Rooms Clean – Dirty rags and open paint cans create hazards inside of your mixing room and emit chemical vapors into the air.
- Use Multiple Exhaust Systems in Mixing Rooms – Your local exhaust fans expel chemicals in the air and general exhaust pushes out the chemical air that your local exhaust might not get.
- Buy a Pre-Fab Mixing Room – Pre-built mixing rooms like the ones we sell at Accudraft Paint Booths provide the cleanest mixing rooms with built-in ventilation systems that can configured within your shop for proper ventilation.
The beauty of these recommendations is that implementing them will actually save you money and make your shop more efficient. Our Accudraft Mix™ Painting Rooms are the gold standard of mixing rooms.
Accudraft Mix™ Painting Rooms Exceed EPA Standards
Our trademarked mixing rooms are as clean and safe as our industry leading paint booths. They are insulated, can be configured outdoors, indoors, and stacked, can be customized for your shop needs, and exceed EPA standards. Contact our team at Accudraft Paint Booths about adding a new Accudraft Mix™ Painting Room to your operation.