Health Hazard Evaluation Report: HETA-88-0290-2460: Pittsburgh Bureau of Fire; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Details

• Personal Author:
  Tubbs, Randy L.
• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Description:
  In response to a request from the International Association of Fire Fighters, an evaluation was performed of possible hazardous noise conditions at the Pittsburgh Bureau of Fire (PBF) (SIC-9224), Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The PBF was responsible for providing fire suppression and prevention services along with first responder emergency medical services in the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Noise dosimeter surveys were conducted at 18 of the 36 fire stations during September 12 through October 3 of 1988. The surveys indicated that the 8-hour time weighted average noise exposures were in general less than the amount allowed under any of the environmental evaluation criteria used by NIOSH. Audiometric testing was conducted on 424 fire fighters. A statistically significant relationship was noted between the time spent with the PBF and the amount of hearing loss in fire fighters after correcting for the effects of age on hearing levels. The author concludes that a health hazard existed for fire fighters due to high noise exposure levels. The author recommends that measures be instituted to reduce noise exposure and help prevent further hearing losses.
• Subjects:
  Ear Firefighters Hearing Loss, Noise-Induced Noise Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Safety Sense Organs
• Keywords:
  Fire-fighting Fire Apparatus Noise Fire Departments, Including Volunteer Firemen Hazard-Confirmed Hearing Conservation Hearing Loss HETA-88-0290-2460 NIOSH-Author NIOSH-Health-Hazard-Evaluation NIOSH-Technical-Assistance-Report Noise-exposure Noise-induced-hearing-loss Noise Dosimetry Noise Exposure Occupational-exposure OSHA Region 3

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• Series:
  Health Hazard Evaluation Reports (HHE)
• Subseries:
  Health Evaluation and Technical Assistance (HETA)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHHETA8802902460
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Pennsylvania ; OSHA Region 3
• 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:
  31 pdf pages
• Contributor:
  Burr, Gregory A. ; Conway, Kathleen F. ; Hartle, Lynette K. ; McKinzie, Patricia E. ; Newman, Mary Ann ; Seitz, Teresa A. ; Stephenson, Richard L. ; Zumwalde, Nancy L.
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00224010
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB95-174918
• Citation:
  Cincinnati, Ohio: 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 88-0290-2460, 1994 Sep ; :1-65
• Editor(s):
  Marlow, Kate L.
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1994
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  9224 - Fire protection - (SIC)
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:0169df542bf87359dc23f913f80c1a33199b15b3fb8fc6b610f2670daf8613edda04f9f030a6503b0a3fc69558074a6e382ba6ade4f5eabe9a27870899c0f0b8
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/171317/cdc_171317_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 187.29 KB ]