Health Hazard Evaluation Report: HETA-90-226-2281: Alaska Airlines; Seattle, Washington

Details

• Personal Author:
  Singal, Mitchell ; Sussell, Aaron L.
• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Description:
  In response to a request from the Association for Flight Attendants, an evaluation of potential employee exposure to toxic gases and lack of oxygen aboard flights of Alaska Airlines (SIC-4512), Seattle, Washington was conducted. The company employed a total of 1,280 flight attendants at the time of the study. Flight attendants had experienced symptoms attributed to cabin air quality on MD-80 aircraft. Symptoms included headache, dizziness, blurred vision, mental confusion, and numbness. Environmental monitoring was conducted aboard three test flights and 13 commercial flights. Carbon-monoxide (630080) levels were well below the altitude adjusted NIOSH Recommended Exposure Limit of 20 parts per million. No toxic exposure or lack of oxygen was identified. A log of illness incidents and medical records for 44 of 192 potentially affected flight attendants were reviewed. The authors conclude that no plausible work related etiologic exposure that would account for persistent neurologic findings among some flight attendants was found. The authors recommend that better record keeping, continued investigation of illness incidents by a joint labor and management committee, and increased cabin ventilation during gate time be instituted.
• Subjects:
  Aircraft Air Pollution, Indoor Environmental Health Hazardous Substances Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Air-quality-control Aircraft Aircrews Air Transportation, Scheduled Cabin Air Quality Carbon Monoxide Flight Attendants Hazard-Unconfirmed HETA-90-226-2281 Indoor-air-pollution Indoor-environmental-quality Indoor Environmental Quality NIOSH-Author NIOSH-Health-Hazard-Evaluation NIOSH-Technical-Assistance-Report Occupational-exposure OSHA Region 10 Toxic-gases

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• Series:
  Health Hazard Evaluation Reports (HHE)
• Subseries:
  Health Evaluation and Technical Assistance (HETA)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHHETA902262281
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Alaska ; Washington ; OSHA Region 10
• 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:
  79 pdf pages
• Contributor:
  Crandall, Michael S. ; Lerner, Phillip J. ; Reh, Christopher M. ; Seitz, Teresa A. ; Woodfin, William
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00215340
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB93-234078
• 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 90-226-2281, 1993 Jan ; :1-76
• CAS Registry Number:
  Carbon monoxide (CAS RN 630-08-0)
• Editor(s):
  Marlow, Kate L.
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1993
• 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-512:4db3f7922d6ee5b9f5456a112a4d762ad639d93ff3e9489d047c1ac8b9c11173c7c87838481bce9c5d0461a1efb31a8ff3cc14fdcf55e9cc3b43db7415bd9f10
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/171498/cdc_171498_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 12.07 MB ]