Health Hazard Evaluation Report: HETA #2002-0157-2887: City of Cleveland Heights, Cleveland Heights, Ohio

Details

• Personal Author:
  Burr, Gregory A.
• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Description:
  In March 2002 the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) received a confidential request for a health hazard evaluation (HHE) from employees at the Dominic Tomaro Public Works Garage Complex in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. Several workers were concerned with a variety of possible hazards, including asbestos (specifically in the municipal waste transfer station), diesel exhaust in the city garage, and inoperable exhaust fans. Immediately after an opening conference on April 30, 2002, a walk-through of the Transfer Station and City Garage was conducted. On May 1, bulk and area air monitoring was conducted for asbestos, carbon monoxide (CO), and diesel exhaust. Eight bulk samples of insulation were collected from the Transfer Station and analyzed for asbestos. All of the samples contained more that 1% asbestos, with two bulk samples of damaged (friable) pipe insulation containing between 20% to 50% asbestos. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) considers any substance containing greater than 1% asbestos to be asbestos-containing material (ACM). The CO concentrations measured in the City Garage during the morning period (coinciding with the highest level of worker activity) averaged 4 parts per million (ppm), with the highest peak CO exposure at 73 ppm. These results were well below the NIOSH recommended exposure limit for CO of 35 ppm for an 8-hour time-weighted average (TWA) exposure and the NIOSH ceiling limit of 200 ppm. Diesel exhaust concentrations (measured as elemental carbon, EC) ranged from trace amounts (between 0.19 to 0.94 micrograms per cubic meter, g/m3) to 1.1 g/m3, well below the proposed American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists' Threshold Limit Value of 20 g/m3 for diesel exhaust for up to an 8-hour TWA exposure. This NIOSH investigation found that a potential health hazard existed from the ACM in the insulation on walls, beams and piping in the Transfer Station. NIOSH, along with the EPA, does not consider removal of ACM as necessarily the best course of action, since improper removal can create a dangerous situation where none previously existed. Instead, an operations and maintenance (O&M) program for managing asbestos in place should be developed. The major program elements should include notification, surveillance, controls, work practices, record keeping, worker protection, and training. Although concentrations of CO and diesel exhaust in the City Garage were below applicable occupational exposure limits on the day of this evaluation, the general dilution ventilation should be increased (by replacing non-functioning wall exhaust fans) and the time that vehicles are allowed to idle in garage should be reduced.
• Subjects:
  Asbestos Inorganic Chemicals Occupational Health Safety Vehicle Emissions Ventilation
• Keywords:
  Asbestos Asbestos-fibers Carbon Monoxide Combustion-gases Combustion-products Diesel-emissions Diesel-exhausts Diesel Exhaust Exhaust-gases Garage Hazard-Unconfirmed Municipal Employees OSHA Region 5 Refuse Systems Ventilation Ventilation-systems

  More +
• Series:
  Health Hazard Evaluation Reports (HHE)
• Subseries:
  Health Evaluation and Technical Assistance (HETA)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHHETA200201572887
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Ohio ; OSHA Region 5
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DSHEFS - Division of Surveillance, Hazard Evaluations, and Field Studies
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  15 pdf pages
• Contributor:
  Grote, Ardith A. ; Smith, Robin F.
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20022793
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2003-105494
• Citation:
  Cincinnati, OH: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, HETA 2002-0157-2887, 2003 Jan ; :1-8
• CAS Registry Number:
  Carbon monoxide (CAS RN 630-08-0)
• Editor(s):
  Arthur, Penny
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2003
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  4953 - Refuse systems - (SIC)
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:50a5639a76b4d2c7bc4774d0a4f618b8a52ce39cb0268d15a06ced7eece8447fe2edef3ad444f3b035e904d5e26aedcecae59f3fc54991e02dac914a05aea513
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/170850/cdc_170850_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 360.85 KB ]