SEMICONDUCTOR SAFETY HANDBOOK Safety and Health in the Semiconductor Industry np NOYES PUBLICATIONS Westwood, New Jersey, U.S.A. Edited by Richard A. Bolmen, Jr. Aon Risk Services San Francisco, California Copyright © 1998 by Noyes Publications No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Publisher. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 97-24032 ISBN: 0-8155-1418-2 Printed in the United States Published in the United States of America by Noyes Publications 369 Fairview Avenue, Westwood, New Jersey 07675 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Semiconductor safety handbook : safety and health in the semiconductor industry / edited by Richard A. Bolmen, Jr. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8155-1418-2 1. Semiconductor industry United States Safety measures. 2. Integrated circuits Design and construction Safety measures. I. Bolmen, Richard A. TK7836.S463 1997 636.11'96213815 dc21 97-24032 CIP About the Editor NOYES PUBLICATIONS Westwood, New Jersey Richard A. Bolmen, Jr. is presently with Aon Risk Services. Prior to that, he was Senior Vice President of Minet Risk Services, Palo Alto, California, responsible for the development and delivery of Minet’s Workers' Compensation, Disability Man- agement and Hazards Management con- sulting services nationwide. He was also with American Risk Consultants and Marsh & McLennan Protection Consultants. He has over a decade of experience develop- ing and managing safety, environmental workers' compensation and risk manage- ment programs for semiconductor manu- facturing companies. Mr. Bolmen has served as the Northern California Regional Director and was on the Board of Directors for the Semiconductor Safety Association. He also served as the Division Safety Director for Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International from 1986 to 1989. v SEMICONDUCTOR SAFETY SERIES Series Editor: Richard A. Bolmen, Jr. CODE COMPLIANCE FOR ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY FACILITIES: by William R. Acorn SEMICONDUCTOR INDUSTRIAL HYGIENE HANDBOOK: by Michael E. Williams and David G. Baldwin, and Paul C. Manz SEMICONDUCTOR SAFETY HANDBOOK: edited by Richard A. Bolmen, Jr. xii Contributors William R. Acorn Acorn Engineering and Consulting Tucson, AZ David G. Baldwin Hewlett-Packard Company Palo Alto, CA Richard A. Bolmen, Jr. Aon Risk Services San Francisco, CA Richard P. Brookman Ceco Group Conshohocken, PA Lisa Brooks AT&T Bell Laboratories Murray Hill, NJ Rollin C. Chew Apple Computer, Inc. Cupertino, CA Thomas E. Hawkinson Rust Environmental & Infrastructure Minneapolis, MN Daryl B. Korpela Northwest Airlines, Inc. St. Paul, MN Robert G. Kuykendall SRI Environmental Engineers & Consultants Concord, CA Donald V. Lassiter Consultant Environmental/Occupational Health San Jose, CA Paul C. Manz Consultant Matawan, NJ Contributors xiii Clifford E. Oliver Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos, NM Robert J. Pearce Industrial Risk Insurers San Francisco, CA David Rainer Environmental Health & Safety Center North Carolina State University Raleigh, NC James H. Stewart Environment, Health & Safety Harvard University Cambridge, MA Bruce Tibbott Matheson Semiconductor Systems & Materials Group East Rutherford, NJ Michael E. Williams Apple Computer, Inc. Cupertino, CA NOTICE To the best of our knowledge the information in this publication is accurate; however the Publisher does not assume any responsibil- ity or liability for the accuracy or completeness of, or consequences arising from, such information. This book is intended for informational purposes only. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute endorsement or recommendation for use by the Publish- er. Final determination of the suitability of any information or product for use contemplated by any user, and the manner of that use, is the sole responsibility of the user. We recommend that anyone intending to rely on any recommendation of materials or procedures mentioned in this publication should satisfy himself as to such suitability, and that he can meet all applicable safety and health standards. vi Preface It is hard to imagine that less than fifteen years ago building and fire codes specific to the construction of a wafer fabrication facility were just in the process of being developed. Detection and evaluation of leaking under- ground storage tanks and epidemiological health studies aimed at qualifying and quantifying our “cleanroom” image were in their infancy stages and Cal- OSHA had just completed the first in-depth study of the industry’s chemical processes and associated industrial hygiene exposures. From a technology perspective, 64 k RAM chips were the hot item for a newly developing computer game market and the 8088 microprocessor provided previously unavailable information processing and storage capabilities at an affordable price. “Silicon Valley,” stretching from Palo Alto to South San Jose, still retained much of its agricultural base and we were always amazed at the beauty and contrast of blooming mustard fields and plum orchards adjacent to wafer fabs, deionized water plants, and chemical storage areas. SEMI was developing a Safety Division, and the Semiconductor Safety Association’s (SSA) annual conference was in its third year attended by a handful of health and safety professionals. Fifteen years later, “Silicon Valley,” as we have known it, now exists in cities like Austin, Phoenix and Boston. Megafabs with property values exceeding $1 billion have become commonplace. We think in terms of gigabytes of hard disk storage for our home computers and the Internet has become a way of life. The Pentium is becoming passé as the next generation of microprocessor looms on the horizon and submicron technology continues to push the envelop of our processing capabilities. Preface vii However great our technological advances have been over this period of time, they have not been exclusive to semiconductors and related high technology products. Interwoven within our semiconductor technology development has been the development of technologies aimed at identifying, evaluating and mitigating the environmental, health and safety (EH&S) risks and exposures associated with the manufacturing and packaging of inte- grated circuits. Driving and advancing these technologies have been interna- tional efforts by SEMI’s Safety Division, the Semiconductor Safety Associa- tion (SSA), and the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA). The purpose of the Semiconductor Safety Handbook is to provide a current, single source reference for many of the primary semiconductor EH&S technologies and disciplines. To this end, we have assembled a comprehensive text written by some of the leading experts in EH&S in the semiconductor industry. This text has taken three years to complete and has involved tremendous effort and commitment by the text’s authors. We have attempted to construct a reference manual that is compre- hensive in its coverage of the technical aspects of each individual subject, while at the same time addressing practical applications of each topic. The scope of this text, from its inception, was intended to address significantly more than what would typically be classified under the definition of “safety.” However, we felt that all of the chapters have a direct application to the protection and preservation of semiconductor employees, the surrounding communities and the environment. As such, “The Semiconductor Safety Handbook - Safety and Health in the Semiconductor Industry” seemed an appropriate title. The Semiconductor Safety Handbook opens with Chapter 1, “Injury and Illness of Semiconductor Workers: Experience and Epidemiological Studies,” by Donald Lassiter and James Stewart. Donald Lassiter has been a key figure in the development and maintenance of the semiconductor industry’s Occupational Health System (OHS) injury and illness data base. Development of the OHS system was sponsored by SIA in the early 1980’s and OHS has become the leading occupational illness and injury tracking database for the industry. The OHS system has been in place since 1983 and has participation from approximately one-quarter to one-third of the US semiconductor industry. Data from the OHS system as well as annual incidence rates for OSHA-recordable work injuries and illnesses are pre- sented and compared for the time period 1983–1995. The co-author of this chapter, James Stewart, provides a comprehensive review of epidemiologi- cal health studies that have been conducted for the semiconductor industry. viii Preface This overview chronicles initial health studies, beginning with the University of Massachusetts reproductive study for Digital Equipment Corporation in 1984, through the recently published University of California, Davis, Semi- conductor Health Study, a multi-disciplinary investigation which targeted reproductive and other health outcomes in the semiconductor industry. In Chapter 2, “Environmental Compliance in the Semiconductor Industry: Detection, Correction and Prevention,” we change gears from protection of employees to protection of the environment. Local, state and federal environmental regulations have increased exponentially over the past decade in response to the plethora of hazardous chemicals used, stored, treated and disposed of (as hazardous waste) in US manufacturing. Few US industries have experienced the impact of the combined environmental regulatory and control technology requirements as the semiconductor indus- try. Our authors, Robert Kuykendall and Rollin Chew collectively have over fifty years experience in environmental technology and compliance and present one of the most comprehensive reviews of environmental regulation, control and mitigation technologies written on the semiconductor industry. Key to the understanding of environmental, health and safety issues in the semiconductor industry is an understanding of the chemicals used in the manufacture and packaging of semiconductors and semiconductor related technologies. Chapter 3, “Chemical Hazards in Semiconductor Operations,” co-authored by Tom Hawkinson and Daryl Korpela offers an overview of the types of chemicals used in the semiconductor industry as well as the related processes. The chemical hazards of semiconductor manufacturing processes as well as the assessment, monitoring and control of these hazards are given an in-depth treatment by two of the most senior members of the industry’s EH&S community: Michael Williams and David Baldwin. Involved with semicon- ductor safety and industrial hygiene from the time these issues were first recognized within the industry, they provide invaluable insight to both the science and practical application of industrial hygiene principles and prac- tices in Chapter 4, “Industrial Hygiene.” While the majority of our efforts, as a health and safety community within the semiconductor industry, have been aimed at the control of hazardous materials, some of our most significant safety exposures continue to be those associated with electrical hazards. Historically, electrical accidents have been the leading cause of serious injuries and fatalities in the semiconductor industry. Ironically, electrical safety is an area where we have the least amount of technical and practical expertise available to us as an [...]... systems are all discussed in great detail The purpose of the Semiconductor Safety Handbook has been to provide a comprehensive, hands-on reference to environmental, health and safety issues critical to the semiconductor industry It was also our intent to produce a text that provides a practical user’s guide for semiconductor environmental, health and safety practitioners as well as those individuals responsible... proceedings of symposia associated with environmental and worker safety and Injury and Illness of Semiconductor Workers 29 health issues.[4][5] In addition, an annual meeting of semiconductor safety, health and environmental professionals sponsored by the Semiconductor Safety Association (SSA) has provided timely presentations concerning worker safety and health issues Finally, as stated above, several epidemiologic... industry’s safety and health community (often involving ad hoc meetings on short notice) a work injury and illness surveillance system such the OHS might not have been possible Figure 1 Comparative annual incidence rates for Occupational Health System, U.S semiconductor industry, durable goods, and all manufacturing (1983-95) 28 Semiconductor Safety Handbook 2.0 REVIEW AND DISCUSSION OF SEMICONDUCTOR. .. designed to facilitate information and data exchange of a noncompetitive nature which have relevance to the safety and health of the semiconductor work force These organizations include SEMATECH, the Semiconductor Safety Association (SSA), and the Environmental Safety and Health Committee of the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) The geographic “compactness” of the industry in the “Silicon Valley”... proportions of semiconductor workers in the older/longer service groups are, probably, * The terms lost workdays and lost workday cases will apply only to cases with days away from work in this chapter 36 Semiconductor Safety Handbook more likely associated with greater proportions of employees (“at risk”) in these two categories in the semiconductor industry That is, it is possible that the semiconductor. .. and we hope that you find the Semiconductor Safety Handbook a useful addition to your library San Francisco, California September, 1997 Richard A Bolmen, Jr Contents xv Contents 1 Injury and Illness of Semiconductor Workers: Experience and Epidemiologic Studies 25 Donald V Lassiter and James H Stewart 1.0 INTRODUCTION 25 2.0 REVIEW AND DISCUSSION OF SEMICONDUCTOR INDUSTRY WORK INJURIES... to understanding the safety and health status of U.S semiconductor workers, a summary discussion of this program is in order 2.2 OSHA Recordkeeping System The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OSH Act) created two new federal agencies: the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) within the U.S Department of Labor and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)... the only significant data concerning the safety and health experience of the nation’s semiconductor work force were those published annually in the BLS surveys, as discussed above Other indicators of the safety and health status of semiconductor workers have been reports of surveys (Health Hazard Evaluations) performed by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), a sprinkling... trade association of the U.S semiconductor industry (Semiconductor Industry Association—SIA) has sponsored the development and maintenance of the Occupational Health System (OHS) This system provides detailed data analyses of pertinent work injury and illness case variables on an annual basis for the semiconductor industry Approximately one-quarter to one-third of the U.S semiconductor industry participates... of Semiconductor Workers 25 1 Injury and Illness of Semiconductor Workers: Experience and Epidemiologic Studies Donald V Lassiter and James H Stewart 1.0 INTRODUCTION The U.S semiconductor industry workplace presents an interesting departure from the classic view of the American working environment As the very essence of what has become known as “High Technology” or the “High Tech” industry, the semiconductor . “The Semiconductor Safety Handbook - Safety and Health in the Semiconductor Industry” seemed an appropriate title. The Semiconductor Safety Handbook opens with Chapter 1, “Injury and Illness of Semiconductor. interna- tional efforts by SEMI’s Safety Division, the Semiconductor Safety Associa- tion (SSA), and the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA). The purpose of the Semiconductor Safety Handbook is to provide. Directors for the Semiconductor Safety Association. He also served as the Division Safety Director for Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International from 1986 to 1989. v SEMICONDUCTOR SAFETY SERIES Series