Health Hazard Evaluation Report: HETA-91-065-2206: Somerset County Assistance Office Building; Somerset, Pennsylvania

Details

• Personal Author:
  Piacitelli, Chris A.
• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Description:
  In response to a request from the superintendent of the office, an investigation was made of possible hazardous working conditions at the Somerset County Assistance Office Building (SIC-8399), Somerset, Pennsylvania. Employees had complained of eye and skin irritation and fatigue, particularly during afternoon hours. Temperature and humidity measurements were generally in accordance with recommendations. Mold growth was not found. Levels of airborne contaminants were very low and not expected to cause the symptoms which the workers had reported. The carbon-dioxide (124389) level was such that it would be expected to cause complaints of air quality. When the investigation was conducted, the ventilation system was only partially operative. However, even when the system was in full operation, the measurements indicated that the supply of outdoor air to the building was well below recommended rates for office complexes. The author concludes that the complaints may have been due to substandard ventilation and exposure to cigarette smoke. The author recommends that more outside air be provided to the building and smoking be restricted to certain specified areas of the building.
• Subjects:
  Air Pollution, Indoor Environmental Health Occupational Health Safety Smokers Tobacco Products Ventilation
• Keywords:
  Cigarette-smoking Hazard-Unconfirmed HETA-91-065-2206 Indoor-air-pollution Indoor-environmental-quality Indoor Air NIOSH-Author NIOSH-Health-Hazard-Evaluation NIOSH-Technical-Assistance-Report Office-workers Office Building OSHA Region 3 Outdoor Air Supply Social Services, Not Otherwise Classified Ventilation Ventilation-systems

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• Series:
  Health Hazard Evaluation Reports (HHE)
• Subseries:
  Health Evaluation and Technical Assistance (HETA)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHHETA910652206
• 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:
  DRDS - Division of Respiratory Disease Studies
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  11 pdf pages
• Contributor:
  Clere, Jerry ; Cornwell, Ronnie J. ; Vandestouwe, Kurt H.
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00208291
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB92-217892
• Citation:
  Morgantown, West Virgina: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, HETA 91-065-2206, 1992 Apr ; :1-13
• CAS Registry Number:
  Carbon dioxide (CAS RN 124-38-9)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1992
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  8399 - Social services, not elsewhere classified - (SIC)
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:5540e8f1588897ce0388b10fd067ccec21c3537f3c381ee8bab597b85cff3a16299d3722868b2a7a534d79ed0a5c6115bc3725b67d6f84b445c65636fc0e4578
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/171570/cdc_171570_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 158.15 KB ]