Health Hazard Evaluation Report: HETA 82-051-1269: National Starch and Chemical, Meredosia, Illinois

Details

• Personal Author:
  Boxer, Peter A. ; Reed, Laurence D.
• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Description:
  In response to a request from employees at the National Starch and Chemical Corporation (SIC-2821) at Meredosia, Illinois, an investigation was begun into an apparently increased number of pulmonary function test and chest X-ray abnormalities among the workers at that site. There were 39 workers with test results for both 1980 and 1981
  
  only two had abnormal results in 1980, and 15 had abnormal results in 1981. The company was a batch process polymer manufacturer. Vinyl-acetate (108054) was the primary ingredient in the batch process operation which produced polyvinyl- acetate polymers and copolymers. Contaminants included organic compounds from the batch operations and nitric acid (7697372) from the tank used to clean process parts. Five area air samples were collected. At no time was the threshold limit for any of the compounds exceeded. Respiratory questionnaires and pulmonary function tests were administered to 47 workers
  
  by NIOSH criteria, six had abnormal pulmonary function tests. The authors conclude that a health hazard from airborne chemicals did not exist at this site. They suggest instead that an artifactual increase in percentage of abnormal test results had reflected a change in the criteria used to interpret the test findings. The authors recommend that the reporting of medical test results to workers be improved and follow up sampling conducted for acid gases in the parts cleaning operation.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Lung Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Plastics Polymers Respiratory Function Tests Respiratory System Respiratory Tract Diseases Safety
• Keywords:
  Butyl Acrylate Ethyl Acetate Hazard-Unconfirmed HETA-82-051-1269 Lung-function N-butyl Acetate NIOSH-Author NIOSH-Health-Hazard-Evaluation NIOSH-Technical-Assistance-Report Occupational-exposure OSHA Region 5 Plastics-industry Plastics Materials, Synthetic Resins, And Nonvulcanizable Elastomers Polymerization Polyvinyl Acetate Copolymers Polyvinyl Acetate Polymers Pulmonary-function-tests Respiratory-system-disorders Vinyl Acetate

  More +
• Series:
  Health Hazard Evaluation Reports (HHE)
• Subseries:
  Health Evaluation and Technical Assistance (HETA)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHHETA820511269
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Illinois ; 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:
  13 pdf pages
• Contributor:
  Hale, Dorris ; Ralston, Mel
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00236842
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB84-209923
• Citation:
  Cincinnati, OH: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, HETA 82-051-1269, 1983 Mar ; :1-10
• CAS Registry Number:
  Vinyl acetate (monomer) (CAS RN 108-05-4) ; Concentrated Nitric acid (70%) (CAS RN 7697-37-2)
• Editor(s):
  Lovell, Patricia
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1983
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  2821 - Plastics materials and resins - (SIC)
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:6b2583294bdeee3549461a30aba55177bed36c32c7c383d3c5498e3187824575a86fecabe343c93acf0ce52e3662054bfba0c3a056ea7d95aea72b34158e52aa
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/171137/cdc_171137_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 3.55 MB ]