EHS 004: Definitions

The terms used in this manual are defined as follows:

Air Purifying Respirator

Personal protective equipment that purifies air by passing it through a medium such as a cartridge. This includes half-face, full-face, and powered air purifying respirators.

Asbestos

A generic term used to describe a number of naturally occurring, fibrous silicate minerals that have been heavily used in commercial and industrial applications. Asbestos exposure has been associated with the development of a variety of diseases, including cancer.

Automated External Defibrillator (AED)

A device about the size of a laptop computer that analyzes the heart’s rhythm for an abnormality and, if necessary, directs the rescuer through voice prompts to deliver an electrical shock to the victim. The shock, called defibrillation, may help the heart reestablish an effective rhythm on its own.

Bloodborne Pathogens

Pathogenic microorganisms that are present in human blood and can cause disease in humans. These pathogens include, but are not limited to, the hepatitis B virus (HBV) and the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

Cardiac Arrest

Cardiac arrest involves an abnormal heart rhythm, called arrhythmia. The heart’s electrical impulses suddenly become chaotic, causing the heart to cease pumping blood effectively. Unless a normal heart rhythm is restored, death will follow within a matter of minutes.

Common Areas

Areas that are used by or accessible to all occupants in multifamily housing structures.

Confined Space

A space that:

1. is large enough and so configured that an employee can bodily enter and perform assigned work
2. has limited or restricted means for entry or exit

   and

3. is not designed for continuous human occupancy.

Examples include, but are not limited to, tanks, vessels, silos, storage bins, hoppers, vaults, sewers, pits, excavations, tunnels, and trenches.

Exit/Exit System

All contiguous areas that can be occupied between the occupied space and the building exit.

Eye and Face Protection

Eye and face protection includes, but is not limited to: safety glasses with side shields, splash and impact goggles, full face shields, and welding glasses/shields.

Foot and Leg Protection

Footguards, safety shoes or boots, and leggings that protect the feet and legs from falling, rolling, or sharp objects, molten metal, and hot, wet, and/or slippery surfaces.

Hand and Arm Protection

Devices that protect the arms and hands from burns, cuts, electric shock, amputation, and absorption of chemical substances and include a wide variety of gloves, hand pads, sleeves, and wristlets. Devices should fit specific tasks.

Hazardous Airborne Contaminants

Toxic dusts, fogs, mists, gases, fumes, and smoke.

Hazardous Materials

Chemicals or substances that can cause harm to human health or the environment, as usable or waste products.

Head Protection

Protective hats or helmets that protect the head against impact blows from flying objects. In some cases, hats should also protect against electric shock.

Hearing Conservation

Measures taken to reduce the risk of noise-induced hearing loss.

Hearing Protection

A device inserted in or placed over the ear in order to weaken air-conducted sound, e.g., foam ear plugs and/or ear muffs.

High-Occupancy Vehicles

Those vehicles capable of transporting more than eight occupants, including the operator, and approved for official use by ASU.

Non-ASU-Owned High-Occupancy Vehicles

High-occupancy vehicles that are leased, rented, or privately owned, and used for university business.

Nonpermit Confined Space

A confined space that does not contain or does not have the potential to contain any uncontrolled hazards that can cause death or physical harm.

Nuisance Dust

Dust with a long history of little adverse effect on the lungs; does not produce significant disease or toxic effect when exposures are kept at reasonable levels.

Occupational Exposure to Potentially Infectious Materials

Reasonably anticipated skin, eye, mucous membrane, or parenteral contact with blood or other potentially infectious materials that may result from the performance of an employee’s duties.

Other Potentially Infectious Materials

Semen; vaginal secretions; cerebrospinal fluid; synovial fluid; pleural fluid; pericardial fluid; peritoneal fluid; amniotic fluid; saliva in dental procedures; any body fluid that is visibly contaminated with blood; any unfixed tissue or organ (other than intact skin) from a human (living or dead); human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-containing cell or tissue cultures, organ cultures, and HIV or hepatitis B virus (HBV)-containing culture medium or other solutions; blood, organs, or other tissues from experimental animals infected with HIV or HBV.

Permissible Exposure Limit

An occupational exposure limit to specific chemicals and hazardous dusts that is published and enforced by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration as a legal standard.

Permit-Required Confined Space

A confined space that has one or more of the following characteristics:

1. contains or has the potential to contain a hazardous atmosphere
2. contains a material that has the potential for engulfing an entrant
3. has an internal configuration such that an entrant could be trapped or asphyxiated by inwardly converging walls or by a floor that slopes downward and tapers to a smaller cross section

   or

4. contains any other recognized serious safety or health hazard.

Powered Industrial Trucks

Mobile power-propelled trucks used to carry, push, pull, lift, stack, or tier material. Vehicles that are used for earth moving and over-the-road hauling are excluded.

Respiratory Protection

Air-purifying and supplied-air respiratory equipment designed to protect the user’s respiratory system from hazardous airborne contaminants.

Sanctioned Country

A license from the U.S. Treasury Department is required prior to travel to a sanctioned country. Typically, a trade embargo exists between that country and the United States.

Single-Use Dust Mask

Air-purifying particulate respirator, acceptable only for use in nuisance dust situations.

Supplied Air Respirator

An apparatus that provides clean air for breathing. Two types are:

1. air-line that does not carry its own air supply but obtains its air from a cylinder or compressor; the wearer is connected via hose to the air supply

   and

2. self-contained, which carries its own cylinder of supplied air and is used in atmospheres that have high airborne contaminant levels or are immediately dangerous to life and health (IDLH).

Torso Protection

Protective clothing such as vests, jackets, aprons, coveralls, and full body suits that are constructed of various materials used to protect the torso from hazards such as heat, splashes from molten metals, liquids, impacts, cuts, acids, and radiation.

Travel Warning

The U.S. government strongly recommends that no U.S. citizen enter a country under a travel warning. A country under a travel warning may become sanctioned at any time.

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