PagoMitch
Mechanical
- Sep 18, 2003
- 66
This has been covered in a couple other threads, but could not find what I was looking for.
Carryover of amines and other boiler chemicals into the steam piping has pretty much (with some holdouts...) been acknowledged; that's by intent to protect equipment and piping. I assume this is a given.
Most (but apparantly not all) health care faciities frown on the direct use of plant steam for this reason. More so from the commercial kitchens using raw steam for steamers - seems a very bad idea.
HOWEVER, I can only find one article (by the CDC, dated 1990 - "Workplace Exposure to Corrosion-Inhibiting Chemicala from a Steam Humidification System - Ohio, 1988) documenting a problem. Don't know if I can link to another article on this forum, but a google on this will turn up the source.
That said, I swear I remember reading an article a couple years ago (2008?) about a civilian Hospital somewhere in the SE (Illinois?) where the "usual" boiler treatment chemicals were accidentally replaced with non-potable chemicals by the water treatment provider. The faclity receiving people did not catch the error, and the boiler staff did not bother to question the change in chemicals. The results sickened several people IN the facility - I assume by operation of the humidifiers. There was even an interview with the facility manager, who stated something like "I'm sorry, this was an accident...". I've spent a bit searching with various paramaters, but it's like this article has been purged from the Inet...
So, does anybody have any verifiable references on this being a problem, or possibly have a source for the article that I mention? I know that "verifiable" is not easy, as many hospital aquired "issues" just "go away", when the patient leaves, many times without a known cause... this is obliquely mentioned in the CDC article as well.
TIA for any comments.
Carryover of amines and other boiler chemicals into the steam piping has pretty much (with some holdouts...) been acknowledged; that's by intent to protect equipment and piping. I assume this is a given.
Most (but apparantly not all) health care faciities frown on the direct use of plant steam for this reason. More so from the commercial kitchens using raw steam for steamers - seems a very bad idea.
HOWEVER, I can only find one article (by the CDC, dated 1990 - "Workplace Exposure to Corrosion-Inhibiting Chemicala from a Steam Humidification System - Ohio, 1988) documenting a problem. Don't know if I can link to another article on this forum, but a google on this will turn up the source.
That said, I swear I remember reading an article a couple years ago (2008?) about a civilian Hospital somewhere in the SE (Illinois?) where the "usual" boiler treatment chemicals were accidentally replaced with non-potable chemicals by the water treatment provider. The faclity receiving people did not catch the error, and the boiler staff did not bother to question the change in chemicals. The results sickened several people IN the facility - I assume by operation of the humidifiers. There was even an interview with the facility manager, who stated something like "I'm sorry, this was an accident...". I've spent a bit searching with various paramaters, but it's like this article has been purged from the Inet...
So, does anybody have any verifiable references on this being a problem, or possibly have a source for the article that I mention? I know that "verifiable" is not easy, as many hospital aquired "issues" just "go away", when the patient leaves, many times without a known cause... this is obliquely mentioned in the CDC article as well.
TIA for any comments.
