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ENG Safety Memo

Emergency Alert System
Roger Herring

The Required Monthly Test (RMT) is scheduled for Tuesday, August 5, 2003 at 11:15pm. 

An AMBER alert was issued on June 23, at approximately 6pm.  If you did not receive a CAE, please check with your monitoring stations to see if they passed it on.

The EAS committee met with Chris Warner of Earth911 on his Amber Alert Communications system.  His system uses the internet to pass EAS alerts throughout a state.  Although there are competitive systems, the ones we have investigated so far, are cost prohibitive for the state of Oklahoma.  We are inquiring into the operations of Mr. Warner’s system.

If you are an ONN affiliate, or were an ONN affiliate and were listed as monitoring EAS through ONN, please let me know if I need to update your EAS assignments.

excerpts from the Editor, Mark Bell.

CO  POISONING:

Is the common challenge common sense?

Writing this newsletter is very interesting, as
many clients call in with topic ideas. Others call in
requesting repeats, updates, or general informa-
tion. As this page was being composed, we got a
call from a long time friend, a newspaper reporter
in a mid-TV-market sized city.

He was on top of a story of an incident where a
TV station van technician required medical treat-
ment for CO exposure.

Apparently, the exhaust system on the station's
"oldest van" was leaky. The technician smelled
exhaust in the non-CO-detector equipped vehicle,
and did nothing. Eventually he was poisoned by
the CO the exhaust contained.

Another tech from a different station brought his
van's CO detector to the subject van, and after a
sampling period, its reading was in the mid-40's.

We're not aware of the type detector, or its qual-
ity, but fire department people on the scene stated
that the reading was excessive and dangerous,
typical of what a pretty good exhaust leak would
produce. As it is warm at this time of year, during
operation the vehicle was closed up and the tech
was running the air conditioning system. The sys-
tem is typical of many, and only recirculates the
air; It doesn't replenish inside air with outside air.

When our reporter friend called the station's
management and asked if the incident would
prompt installation of CO detectors, he was told
that it would not. Such cultural issues exist in many
companies. So be it.

Technicians need to know the ventilation char-
acteristics of their vehicles as much as they need
to know the operation of all the other systems.
There are many. It's a tough job, and CO poison-
ing can last forever according to information on the
www.coheadquarters.com web site.

After reading some information, one can con-
clude that every person who works in or near com-
bustion engine vehicles should be as familiar with
CO toxicity as they are with the tasks which bring
them to the exposure.

Do you drive an SNG truck? Sometimes the
transmitter cooling vents in those trucks are built
so the transmitter gets air from the rack or techni-
cal compartment, and exhausts the air to the out-
side. This creates a vacuum in the compartment
and outside air is sucked into the technical area
from the path(s) of least resistance. This outside
air might be near the generator exhaust, or ex-
haust of nearby traffic. Operators should check to
see that both intake and exhaust for the transmit-
ters are connected to outside air.

Every ENG/SNG truck should be equipped with
a CO detector. If you are in a culture which doesn't
supply these devices, perhaps a discussion with
the appropriate parties concerning CO exposure
will encourage their use. Detectors can save lives.
Note: Make sure the one chosen is meant for it's
type use.  (indoor, outdoor, confined space...)

The coheadquarters.com website claims: "It
has been known for decades that CO poisoning
can produce lasting health harm, mainly through
its destructive effects on the central nervous sys-
tem. Some studies found that 25-40% of people
died during acute exposure, while 15-40% of the
survivors suffered immediate or delayed neurop-
sychological deficit.

"Now, an emerging body of evidence suggests
that longer exposures to lower levels of CO are
capable of producing a myriad of debilitating re-
sidual effects that may continue for days, weeks,
months, even years."

Hmmm. That's good enough for me. Hopefully
it's good enough for all who work inside motor
vehicles or simply spend
time near traffic.

Common Sense.

Be careful out there.

Contact information,
ENG Safety Memo:
Toll-free: 1-87-SAFE-6090
Phone: 781-383-6090
Fax: 781-394-0762
e-mail: safety@engsafety.com
www.engsafety.com