Health Hazard Evaluation Report: HETA-93-0816-2371: Southwest Airlines, Houston Hobby Airport; Houston, Texas

Details

• Personal Author:
  Decker, John A.
• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Description:
  In response to an employee request, an investigation was begun into aircraft ground crew exposures to diesel and gasoline engine exhaust at Southwest Airlines (SIC-4512), at Houston Hobby Airport, Houston, Texas. Complaints centered around emissions from fuel trucks and belt loaders. All diesel equipment at the site used JP4 fuel rather than diesel as it was readily available. No emissions control equipment was used on any gasoline or diesel equipment. Employees suffered transient eye and throat irritation. Samples were taken for elemental carbon (7440440) (Ce), carbon-monoxide (630080) (CO), and nitrogen-dioxide (10102440) (NO2). A ramp agent experienced the highest exposure concentration of Ce, 14.8 micrograms/cubic meter, while an area sample in the jetway area showed the lowest, 1.8 micrograms/cubic meter. Personal breathing zone exposures to diesel exhaust were similar to other studies of truck drivers. Full shift personal sample results for CO ranged from 3 to 7 parts per million (ppm). The highest instantaneous peak concentrations were 91 and 111ppm, still under the NIOSH ceiling limit of 200ppm. No sample gave detectable amounts of NO2. The author concludes that a health hazard from exposures to CO or NO2 was not found at the time of the survey. The author recommends that efforts be made to control exposures to a greater extent.
• Subjects:
  Aircraft Occupational Health Safety Vehicle Emissions
• Keywords:
  Airport-personnel Air Transportation, Scheduled Carbon Monoxide Combustion-products Diesel-emissions Diesel Exhaust Exposures Elemental Carbon Emission-sources Exhaust-gases Eye And Throat Irritation Hazard-Unconfirmed HETA-93-0816-2371 NIOSH-Author NIOSH-Health-Hazard-Evaluation NIOSH-Technical-Assistance-Report Nitrogen Dioxide OSHA Region 6

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• Series:
  Health Hazard Evaluation Reports (HHE)
• Subseries:
  Health Evaluation and Technical Assistance (HETA)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHHETA9308162371
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Texas ; OSHA Region 6
• 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:
  16 pdf pages
• Contributor:
  Donavan, Beth A.
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00219207
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB94-175155
• 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 93-0816-2371, 1994 Jan ; :1-16
• CAS Registry Number:
  Carbon (CAS RN 7440-44-0) ; Carbon monoxide (CAS RN 630-08-0) ; Nitrogen dioxide (CAS RN 10102-44-0)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1994
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  4512 - Air transportation, scheduled - (SIC)
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:1739e9ff6312ab11e7ed2881fd9f9b6fd7aebf46e4210e20af563737b653284189e9185d2839104ae2dde3295c86635d2eb1bd1f1e889d70d7d3fa77ca6cf0e7
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/171402/cdc_171402_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 765.31 KB ]