Chemical Exposures from Spray Polyurethane Foam Installation

Why is it dangerous?

Exposures to spray polyurethane foam chemicals in vapors, aerosols, and dust during and after installation can cause asthma, sensitization, lung damage, occupational asthma, and skin and eye irritation.

Employees involved in spray application of polyurethane foam reported respiratory symptoms such as
  • difficulty breathing, 
  • coughing, 
  • chest tightness, and 
  • skin irritation.

What can employers do about this?

Policies and Procedures

  • Ventilate the area.
  • Encourage and enable good hygiene--for example, no eating around the chemicals.
  • Train employees on the hazards related to SPF installation.
  • Refer employees who wheeze or become short of breath following exposure to their personal physicians immediately to be evaluated for occupational asthma.
  • Assign employees diagnosed with occupational asthma to jobs that do not expose them to hazardous compounds.
  • Work with the manufacturers of the polyurethane foam to substitute toxic materials with a less toxic compound.

Personal Protective Equipment

Clothing
  • Ensure all workers in the spraying operations use proper respirators and protective clothing including coverall, butyl rubber gloves, neoprene, nitrile, protective suits, and foot covers.
Respirators
  • Train employees on proper respirator use. Respirators should not be removed until spraying is complete. Employees who use respirators must be clean-shaven.
    • Ensure the sprayer uses an air supplied respirator instead of air purifying.
    • Ensure the helper uses air-purifying full-face respirators and wear coveralls, head and foot covers, and chemical resistant gloves.
    • If air purifying respirators are used, they need to be full-faced and the air purifying cartridges should be changed based on a schedule determined by OSHA Respiratory Protection e-Tool.

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