#Safety label cut fingers skin#

Make sure employees know the guidelines for hand washing and use of PPE, as improper use of either can lead to serious problems. , a resource for selecting appropriate hand tools and gloves, has a special section to assist with choosing gloves for cement workers that can help with the selection process. Personal protective equipment should include gloves, rubber boots and anything else that will help keep cement from coming in contact with skin.

#Safety label cut fingers skin#

Many soaps are actually slightly alkaline, which will only increase skin irritation for these workers. CPWR provides a list of the pH values of many bar and liquid soaps. Soap should be either pH neutral or slightly acidic.

Employees can’t just rinse their hands in buckets of water used for rinsing tools as that water likely contains cement particles. Employer TasksĮmployers need to provide the tools to keep workers safe: running water, soap and personal protective equipment (PPE).Įach employee working with cement will need five to seven gallons of running water for hand washing each day. Concrete truck drivers, cement masons, carpenters, bricklayers, tile setters, plaster workers and terrazzo workers all must take steps to prevent skin problems related to cement work. Injury Preventionīecause cement is used in so many materials, workers with a wide variety of jobs are at risk. The product’s safety data sheet (SDS) can also be consulted for further first aid information. If an accidental exposure to wet cement occurs, the skin should quickly be washed with soap and water. It is important that employees experiencing skin issues consult a doctor to prevent permanent damage. Symptoms include blisters, hardened skin and discolored (black or green) skin. An employee may not feel the injury right away like a burn from a flame or hot surface, but the burns do look similar. Cement Burns – If left on the skin long enough, cement can actually burn the skin.This condition includes many of the same symptoms as ICD, but it is difficult to cure. Allergic Contact Dermatitis (ACD) – Some people have an immune response (an allergic reaction) to the chemicals in cement, mainly a chemical called hexavalent chromium.This condition can be short-term or chronic. Irritant Contact Dermatitis (ICD) – Cement’s pH and abrasiveness can quickly irritate the skin, causing a range of symptoms including pain, itching, blisters, scabs, swelling and redness.Dry Skin – Because cement absorbs moisture, cement workers often experience dry skin, which can be accompanied by redness, itching and other unpleasant symptoms.

Workers who encounter cement on a regular basis are at risk for four main skin problems, and some of these are quite serious. For this reason, chemicals in cement can quickly irritate the skin and even enter the bloodstream.Īdditionally, cement draws moisture from anything it comes into contact with, so working with cement can quickly dry out the skin. When the skin is exposed to this higher pH, it becomes more permeable, which means it more easily absorbs chemicals. Because the pH scale is logarithmic (and each whole number change indicates the pH changes 10-fold), wet cement has a pH one billion times higher than human skin. This means the pH of cement is vastly different from that of human skin. Consider this: water has a pH of 7 and is considered pH neutral. On the pH scale, which runs from zero (very acidic) to 14 (very alkaline), cement is incredibly alkaline, with a pH of 12 to 13. The reason Portland cement is dangerous to skin is because of its pH. According to the Center for Construction Research and Training (CPWR), cement is a key ingredient in concrete, mortar, plaster, stucco, terrazzo and tile grout. When the powder is exposed to water it hardens, making it an ideal material for building projects. The cement is made from a mixture of limestone, clay, gypsum and other additives and it is stored in powder form. Portland cement, whose name comes from the location in England where its ingredients were first mined, is the most common type of cement used in construction worldwide.

Portland Cement: Definition and Dangers.