February 2020

Page A14 FEBRUARY 2020 FUNERAL HOME & CEMETERY NEWS S ec t i on A By Glenn Lafitte Respirators… Do I Really Need Them? The short answer to this question is…YES! This an- swer is based upon almost three decades of funeral home operations auditing, personnel training, review- ing formaldehyde exposure results and overall experi- ence gained from funeral homes all over the country. Now let’s delve into the “long” answer of this question. There are only two fundamental scenarios where OSHA requires employers to provide employees with respirators to wear while performing work tasks and that is when there is an inhalation risk of either exces- sive chemicals or hazardous particulates. In the funer- al home industry, that translates into either formalde- hyde exposures to embalmers in excess of the OSHA permissible exposure limits (PELs) or when there is likelihood of potential exposure to tuberculosis bacte- ria made airborne via removal or embalming practices. It is not uncommon for funeral homes to resist the need to implement a respiratory protection program when in fact they have no documented embalm- er formaldehyde exposures above the PELs. Howev- er, these exposure data points can often times be a “false sense of security” when it comes to exposures. It is common for these exposure results to be many years old and as a result may not accurately depict cur- wear at least an air-purifying, negative pressure respira- tor equipped with appropriate particulate cartridges e.g. P-100. While OSHA does not have a specific TB regu- lation or standard, the requirement to manage TB risks for funeral home employers stems fromOSHA’s General Duty Clause 5a.1 and CDC recommendations for fu- neral workers. In summary, we recommend that funeral homes have at least one person qualified to wear proper respiratory protection i.e. medically approved, annual fit tests, an- nually trained. This allows this person to respond to fluid spills and/or make removals of potentially active TB cases etc. Respirators are also required of embalm- ers when routine formaldehyde monitoring reveals ex- cessive exposures. In these cases, all embalmers must wear respirators to perform embalming procedures un- til exposures are controlled to below the exposure lim- its. How to manage formaldehyde over exposures and comply with the various monitoring requirements in detail will be the subject of future articles. www.nomispublications.com Funeral Home & Cemetery News Contributors share insights and exchange ideas. Blogs Glenn Lafitte is the President and principle owner of Ecolomed LLC. Ecolomed LLC has offered comprehensive OSHA compli- ance services to the funeral home industry since 1992. For more information, please visit www.ecolomed.com or call 918-625-4755. OSHA Compliance rent embalmer exposures. Examples of changes that can affect exposures range from new embalming personnel with their own unique work practices to changes in fluid manufacturers, ventilation system degradation, embalm- ing room remodeling, and others. However, probably the most common situation where a respirator is required is when a spill occurs inside the em- balming room (emergency). How many of you embalmers reading this article right now have had situations where a hose comes off the machine or from the body or perhaps you spill a bottle of cavity fluid? How about difficult au- topsy cases? Yes, that’s right…those situations can be very harmful to your health due to inhalation of excessive (above PEL concentrations) formaldehyde vapors i.e. burning of nose, throat, eyes. The problem is these “emergency” and/ or “difficult case” situations are often not monitored and are not reflected in your firm’s existing formaldehyde expo- sure monitoring results relied upon to determine whether or not a respiratory protection program is needed at the funeral home. To clean up a cavity fluid spill you most cer- tainly will need a respirator. Another situation where respirators are required by OSHA is if an employee makes a removal or embalms an active tuberculosis (TB) case. In this situation, employees must Continued from Page A13 2019 NFDA General Price List Study New England (CT, ME, MA, NH, RI, VT) Middle Atlantic (NJ, NY, PA) South Atlantic (DE, FL, GA, MD, NC, SC, WV, VA) East South Central (AL, KY, MS, TN) West South Central (AR, LA, OK, TX) East North Central (IL, IN, MI, OH, WI) West North Central (IA, MN, KS, MO, ND, SD, NE) Mountain (AZ, CO, ID, MT, NV, NM, UT, WY) Pacific* (AK, CA, HI, OR, WA) National Median Cost of a Funeral with Viewing and Ceremony Followed by Burial $7,612 $7,849 $7,461 $7,353 $6,933 $7,855 $8,123 $6,907 $7,290 National Median Cost of a Funeral with Viewing and Ceremony Followed by Cremation $5,447 $5,364 $5,021 $4,928 $4,688 $5,305 $5,673 $4,517 $4,808 Other Merchandise Metal Burial Casket $2,145 $2,435 $2,500 $2,500 $2,295 $2,500 $2,600 $2,450 $2,600 Wood Burial Casket $2,500 $2,800 $3,195 $3,495 $2,898 $3,000 $3,000 $2,956 $2,995 Cremation Casket $1,120 $1,395 $1,140 $1,200 $895 $1,225 $1,295 $1,000 $995 Alternative Cremation Container $186 $175 $100 $150 $180 $125 $150 $140 $115 Rental Casket $1,000 $1,120 $950 $995 $895 $1,150 $1,000 $890 $995 Urn $300 $295 $295 $250 $250 $280 $295 $295 $288 Vault $1,450 $1,595 $1,500 $1,495 $1,386 $1,450 $1,595 $1,200 $1,295 *Caution: Pacific region has a small sample size and may not fully reflect regional medians. of completing the survey online. A link to complete the survey was emailed to all main contacts with a valid email address, posted for two consecutive weeks in the NFDA Bulletin (electronic newsletter), and a reminder to com- plete the survey was emailed to all main contacts as well. Of the potential respondents, 1,027 members anony- mously completed the survey (643 mail and 384 online), which accurately reflects NFDA’s total membership (with 95% confidence) within a range of +2.8%. Responses also accurately reflect NFDA’s membership by U.S. cen- sus district. Funeral professionals interested in purchasing a copy of the survey report should call NFDA at 800-228-6332 or visit www.nfda.org/store. The survey report is free to NFDA members and $175 for nonmembers. NFDA is the world’s leading and largest funeral service association, serving more than 20,000 individual mem- bers who represent nearly 11,000 funeral homes in the United States and 49 countries around the world. NFDA is the trusted leader, beacon for ethics and the strongest advocate for the profession. NFDA is the association of choice because it offers funeral professionals compre- hensive educational resources, tools to manage success- ful businesses, guidance to become pillars in their com- munities and the expertise to foster future generations of funeral professionals. NFDA is headquartered in Brook- field, WI, and has an office in Washington, DC. For more information, visit www.nfda.org. Survey Methodology A survey was mailed to 5,316 NFDA-member funeral home owners on July 24, 2019, to gather General Price List and other related data. Members also had the option