ASABE Technical Library - Abstract

Abstract. The current work is direct result of work started in the committee in the late 1980‘s by the then committee chair from John Deere. In doing research for new cab development he observed operators in open platform tractors spraying chemicals with sometimes no protection or wearing a respirator and personal protective equipment. He reasoned that there had to be a better way to do this as in many cases observed the spraying was done in the elevated temperatures of the southwest. The early work looked at who should be involved in such a standard development; the members realized they did not have the expertise to do such work. Using the resources of EMI, now AEM, they met with EPA officials to determine how they could get government researchers knowledgeable with the technology necessary to establish what was needed in terms of measurements to assure that a properly manufactured and maintained cab could protect an operator in spraying environment. From this effort the committee was populated with reputable researchers from NIOSH, manufacturers and users and governmental application technicians. This resulted in the first ASAE standard in this arena, ASAE S525. Application in the field soon demonstrated that there were issues with this standard where it‘s application to a cab did not give the protection necessary. Eventually that standard was allowed to lapse because of issues with it‘s application. Then the committee studied how the respirators are applied in the OSHA realm and from it came the current series of ASABE S613 standards based on the application of a “Occupational Health and Safety Management System”. This series of standards outlines the elements necessary to protect the operator, part 1; the design of a cab to meet those needs, part 2; provide a filter that assures the air brought into the cab is purified, part 3; and lastly a test to perform to assure that the cab can protect the operator to the needs of the application, part 4. This paper will trace those efforts. The abstract is often the only part of the paper to be read, so include your major findings in a useful and concise manner. Include a problem statement, objectives, brief methods, quantitative results, and the significance of your findings. The abstract should be no more than 250 words long.