Subchapter F. PRINTING AND RELATED INDUSTRIES
GENERAL PROVISIONS Sec.
47.191. Definitions.
47.192. Scope.
47.193. Workrooms.
47.194. Exhaust systems.
47.195. Safety.
47.196. Dressing rooms.
47.197. Sanitation.
47.198. Water.
47.199. Eating room.
47.200. Photoengraving.
47.201. Suggested safe practices.
47.202. Penalty.
Authority The provisions of this Subchapter F issued under act of June 2, 1913 (P. L. 396, No. 267) (71 P. S. § 1442); and act of May 18, 1937 (P. L. 654, No. 174) (43 P. S. § § 25-1—25-15), unless otherwise noted.
Source The provisions of this Subchapter F adopted October 9, 1918; amended through August 1, 1968, unless otherwise noted.
Cross References This Subchapter cited in 34 Pa. Code § 11.85 (relating to applicable provisions of other regulations).
GENERAL PROVISIONS
§ 47.191. Definitions.
The following words and terms, when used in this subchapter, have the following meanings, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:
Bookbinding—Any processes and operations connected with finishing of work, including cutting, ruling, folding, sewing, wire-stitching, bronzing, glueing and binding of pamphlets and books.
Composition—Processes and operations connected with casting or setting of type by hand or machine, and preparation of printing forms.
Electrotyping—Processes and operations connected with reproduction of printing surface by electrotyping.
Lithographing—Processes and operations connected with the production of lithograph stones and lithograph printing.
Photoengraving—Process and operations connected with the production of zinc, copper, or other metal printing plates by photoengraving.
Presswork—Operations and processes of printing machinery.
Printing and allied industries—Each individual, firm or corporation engaged in bookbinding, composition, electrotyping, lithographing, photoengraving, presswork, stereotyping and steel or copper plate printing.
Stereotyping—Processes and operations connected with the reproduction of printing surfaces by stereotyping.
Steel or copper plate printing—Processes and operations connected with the production of steel, copper, or other metal printing plates and dies, and steel plate printing and die stamping.§ 47.192. Scope.
This subchapter sets forth rules to safeguard the lives, limbs and health of workers employed in printing and related industries, and places the responsibility of complying with these rules upon both employer and employe.
§ 47.193. Workrooms.
(a) Heat. Workrooms shall be adequately heated and ventilated by natural or mechanical means, and maintained at all times in a clean and sanitary condition.
(b) Windows. Workrooms shall have adequate light in all places where work is carried on, and windows shall be constructed to open for ventilation.
(c) Ventilation. Ventilation shall be secured through openings to the outer air so as to prevent drafts endangering the health or comfort of employes.
(d) Lighting. Artificial lighting shall have adequate intensity for each operation carried on, and lighting fixtures shall be fitted to minimize glare. Artificial lighting shall conform to the requirements of Chapter 27 (relating to lighting). When employes go off duty during the dark hours, lights shall be kept burning until they are safely out of the building.
(e) Floors. Floors of all rooms, where lead is used or handled, shall have smooth, even surfaces, permitting an easy removal of dust by vacuum cleaning, by flushing the floor with water or by sweeping after the floor has been sprinkled with a sufficient quantity of water, wet sawdust or other wet nonpoisonous material to lay all dust. Dry sweeping of the floors is prohibited.
(f) Furniture. Stands, racks or other articles of furniture shall be placed to avoid spaces between them which cannot be reached for cleaning and shall be so fixed to the floor that no dust may accumulate below them; or, installed with feet of sufficient height permitting the floor beneath them to be easily cleaned.
(g) Type cases. Type cases shall be cleaned under an exhaust hood, by vacuum cleaner, or outside the workroom in the open air. The use of bellows for blowing out dust in the room is prohibited.
(h) Expectorating. No person shall expectorate or spit upon the walls, floors or stairs of any building.
(i) Cuspidors. Cuspidors shall be provided without expense to the employes and shall be thoroughly cleaned each day or more often if necessary to maintain them in a sanitary condition.
(j) Flushed with air. Workrooms in which lead, chemicals or other poisonous substances are used or in which injurious fumes, dust, or gases are present, shall be thoroughly flushed with air each working day.
(k) Wiping rags. Wiping rags shall be of unstained, clean-washed and sterilized materials, free from buttons, pins or other obstructions.
(l) Waste cans. A nonleak receptacle of waterproof material equipped with a tight fitting cover, shall be provided in each workroom. All waste, liquid refuse and all other material which may either decay or have an offensive odor shall be deposited within this receptacle. This receptacle shall be kept covered except when material is being either deposited in it or removed from it; it shall be emptied and cleaned daily or more often if necessary to maintain it in a sanitary condition.
(m) First aid kit. Each establishment shall have available at all times and without expense to employes an approved first aid kit.
(n) Containers. Dross skimming from molten lead pots shall be poured as soon as practical into a container provided for this purpose. The container shall have a lid, and shall be kept closed except when it is either filled or emptied.
(o) Gas pipe joints. Gas pipe joints connected with gas heated machines shall be examined at least once each day to prevent air pollution from leaking gas.
(p) Lead. Employes shall be instructed to drop lead carefully into metal pots and to exercise care in avoiding the making of lead dust.
§ 47.194. Exhaust systems.
(a) Pipes. All gas heated lead melting pots shall be equipped with exhaust hoods and exhaust pipes sufficient to remove all gas fumes.
(b) Cleaning. Plungers shall be cleaned under an exhaust hood or in a cleaning box. Type metal shall be cleaned either under an exhaust hood or by a vacuum system.
(c) Discharge pipes. The fumes from all exhaust pipes shall be discharged outside the workroom at a point where they cannot return to the building nor create a nuisance.
(d) Approval. Before construction work on exhaust systems is started, plans for these systems shall be submitted in duplicate to the Department for approval.
§ 47.195. Safety.
(a) Additional requirements. All power transmission machinery, machines, railings, toeboards, stationary steam engines, boilers, ladders, fire prevention and elevators, shall conform to the requirements of this part.
(b) Signal system. When more than one person is employed on a machine, an effective system of signal starting shall be adhered to rigidly.
(c) Feeder guards. Hand-fed machinery shall be guarded to protect persons employed as feeders. All power-driven guillotine paper cutters installed after July 1, 1933, shall be equipped with a two-handed tripping device and a nonrepeat device.
(d) Platen guards. Platen printing presses shall be installed with an approved type of feed guard.
(e) Minors. No persons under 18 years of age shall operate power-driven paper cutters or circular saws except qualified journeymen or apprentices and student learners as defined in § 11.21 (relating to definitions), and graduates of an approved vocational, technical or industrial education curriculum which prepared them for employment in the specific occupation.
Source The provisions of this § 47.195 amended June 10, 1977, 7 Pa.B. 1592. Immediately preceding text appears at serial page (9227).
§ 47.196. Dressing rooms.
(a) Lockers. The employer shall provide each employe with a sanitary locker. For employes who make changes of clothing and whose working clothes may contaminate their street clothes with lead or other poisonous compounds or materials, the employer shall provide either an additional locker, a double locker, or such change-house facilities as are approved by the Department. All facilities shall be maintained in a clean and sanitary condition. Dressing rooms shall be provided for all female employes and shall be of solid construction and entirely separate from any workroom. In the dressing room, clothes hooks may be provided in lieu of lockers for the use of the female employes.
(b) Couches. Unless a hospital or emergency room, exclusively used for that purpose, is provided and maintained, there shall be provided in every dressing room for the use of females at least one couch or bed.
§ 47.197. Sanitation.
Sanitary facilities shall be provided in accordance with the requirements of Chapter 41 (relating to sanitation).
§ 47.198. Water.
(a) Drinking. The employer shall provide at all times, without expense to the employe, a sufficient supply of pure, cool drinking water.
(b) Cups. A common drinking cup is prohibited.
(c) Ice. Ice used for cooling purposes shall be applied in such a manner that the ice itself does not come in contact with the drinking water. The water from the melting ice shall not be mixed with the drinking water.
(d) Drinking fountains. The drinking fountains or faucets shall be of such design and construction as to obviate the direct application of the lips to the water outlet.
(e) Cleaning. Water receptacles shall be thoroughly cleansed weekly and then sterilized with steam or with boiling water.
(f) Physical examination. Employes engaged in the care and maintenance of drinking facilities shall be determined, by physical examination, to be free of communicable diseases.
§ 47.199. Eating room.
No employe or other person shall take or be permitted to take any food or drink of any kind into any workroom where lead or other poisonous compounds or materials are handled.
§ 47.200. Photoengraving.
(a) Ventilation. All rooms in which the processes of plate developing, zinc etching, line etching and plate printing are carried on shall be adequately ventilated by natural or mechanical means. If mechanical means are necessary, plans for installation shall be approved by the Department.
(b) Rubber gloves. The employer shall provide without expense to the employe rubber gloves for the use of glass washers, and when required, to zinc and copper-etchers and re-etchers.
§ 47.201. Suggested safe practices.
It is recommended that the following safe practices be adhered to and a notice of them be posted by the employer in a conspicuous place of each establishment:
POISONS IN PRINTING
Lead, the main constituent of type metal is absorbed into the system chiefly from the stomach and in small part from the lungs and possibly from the skin. The dust of the workrooms always contains lead in very finely divided form. Unless very great precautions are taken this settles on the floor, the hands, or the lips, and is in this way carried to the stomach. Taken into the body, it produces:
Colic;
Constipation;
Paralysis;
Disease of the heart, blood vessels, and kidneys;
Insanity; and
Death.
Protect yourself from it in every way.
Do not splash metal from your melting pots; it dries, becomes dust, and you inhale the lead.
Never hold type in your mouth.
Do not permit dry sweeping of your workroom or dusting of the fonts while you are present. The only safe way of cleaning during working hours is vacuum cleaning.
Do not keep your lunch exposed to the dust of the workroom.
Never touch food or place your fingers in your mouth without first washing your hands thoroughly. A nail file or other instrument for cleaning the nails, a brush, hot water and soap are necessary if the lead is to be removed thoroughly. Benzine is often used to clean the ink from the rolls of the printing presses.
Poisoning from this substance produces:
Faintness;
Dizziness;
Headache; and
Vomiting.
This material should be used only in places that are well ventilated.
Anilin oil forms a part of some of the mixtures, used in cleaning rolls. It is more poisonous than benzine and, in addition to the symptoms given under benzine, may, in severe cases, cause:
Convulsions, or
Death.
Find out whether or not the cleaning mixture contains anilin oil. If it does, use it only in well-ventilated rooms. Do not splash any of it on your body, your clothes, or the floor. You may be poisoned by absorbing it through the skin or by breathing the fumes as the liquid evaporates.
Poisonous gases are given off by all fires. In addition, most gas fires do not burn up all the gas but allow some of it to escape into the room. See that all fires have flues in good working order leading to the outside air in order to carry away any gases that might injure your health.
TUBERCULOSIS Of every 1,000 deaths among printers, 292 are caused by tuberculosis. To have this disease you must take the germ into your body. You may get it from the common drinking cup, the common towel, or from your coughing neighbor who spits on the floor. If your employer does not provide individual cups and towels, provide your own. Your health is worth it. Plenty of cuspidors conveniently placed and in a clean shop ought to prevent everybody from spitting on the floor.
INACTIVITY Long sitting or standing in one position, especially in rooms without plenty of fresh air, cause poor circulation of the blood. Overcome this by plenty of exercise in the open air after working hours.
LIGHT If you cannot have daylight for your work, endeavor to have all artificial lights properly placed and shaded so as to keep the glare from your eyes. You need the best light possible to do your work quickly and well. A printer with eyesight ruined is a printer out of a job.
Death from tuberculosis or lead poisoning is absolutely unnecessary. If you contract either of these diseases, see your physician at once. Both are curable if treatment is begun early and carefully carried out.
HOW TO PREVENT SICKNESS 1. Do not go to work on an empty stomach; this weakens the system.
Do not put fingers in the mouth.
Do not take food into the workrooms.
Do not eat food in the workroom.
Before eating and before leaving work thoroughly wash your face, arms, and hands with soap and warm water; cleanse your nose and rinse your mouth with water.
2. Take a bath frequently, every day if possible. Cleanliness is one of the best preventives of sickness.
3. Do not chew tobacco while at work, for in handling tobacco with dirty hands the dust may be carried by your fingers into your mouth.
4. Alcoholic liquors weaken the system and make it more liable to disease. All employes are urged to abstain from the use of all alcoholic liquors.
5. Drink plenty of good milk.
6. Keep your finger nails clean and cut short so that dust can not collect under and around them.
7. It is better not to wear a mustache or beard as they collect dust. If worn it is better to keep them cut short and wash them thoroughly every day.
8. To have good health you must keep your bowels open. Whenever constipated, take a dose of Epsom or Glauber’s salts or other laxative.
9. Dry sweeping is prohibited. The floors and walls should be cleaned either with a vacuum cleaner, or flushed with water, or swept only after being thoroughly sprinkled with a sufficient quantity of wet sawdust to lay all dust thoroughly.
10. If a workman finds that he is affected by lead, he should leave this trade.
11. If ill consult a physician at once. Do not endanger your health by taking home remedies or the advice of friends or drug clerks who are not licensed physicians.
§ 47.202. Penalty.
Any person who violates this subchapter or any regulations of the Department or who interferes with the Department or its duly authorized representative in the enforcement of these provisions or regulations shall be penalized under section 15 of act of May 18, 1937 (P. L. 654, No. 174) (43 P. S. § 25-15).
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