Health Hazard Evaluation Report: HETA-91-338-2187: IMC Corporation; Sterlington, Louisiana

Details

• Personal Author:
  Kiefer, Max ; Miller, Ray F. ; Tepper, Allison L.
• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Description:
  In response to a request from an authorized representative of the Construction and General Laborers Union, Local 762, an investigation was made of potential hazards for asbestos abatement contract workers at IMC Corporation, (SIC-2869), Sterlington, Louisiana. The IMC facility consisted of two ammonia facilities, a nitroparaffin (NP) facility, and a NP derivatives facility. An explosion occurred on May 1, 1991, in the NP facility, caused by a faulty compressor. During the post explosion renovation activities, an asbestos abatement firm was working on site due to the large amounts of asbestos (1332214) insulation which had been disturbed by the explosion. Records indicated that several workers complained of ill effects and odors on June 17 and 19. The incidents were investigated but no chemical exposure explanation was found. Routine and complaint based industrial hygiene monitoring was primarily area monitoring and not substance specific. Of the 25 workers interviewed, 22 had symptoms they felt were related to their work at IMC. The symptoms included those of the upper respiratory tract, central nervous system, and gastrointestinal system. The most common included diarrhea, nausea, headache, dizziness, and cough, each experienced by significantly more than half the subjects. The symptoms could not be linked conclusively to any specific chemical release, job task, work location, or food or drink source.
• Subjects:
  Asbestos Digestive System Diseases Dust Inorganic Chemicals Manufacturing And Industrial Facilities Nitrogen Compounds Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Asbestos-fibers Asbestos Abatement Chemical-manufacturing-industry Contractor Contract Workers Diarrhea Explosion-damage Hazard-Unconfirmed HETA-91-338-2187 Industrial Organic Chemicals, Not Elsewhere Classified Insulation-materials Nausea NIOSH-Author NIOSH-Health-Hazard-Evaluation NIOSH-Technical-Assistance-Report Nitro-compounds OSHA Region 6 Vomiting

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• Series:
  Health Hazard Evaluation Reports (HHE)
• Subseries:
  Health Evaluation and Technical Assistance (HETA)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHHETA913382187
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Louisiana ; 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:
  18 pdf pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00206939
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB92-193978
• Citation:
  Cincinnati, Ohio: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, HETA 91-338-2187, 1992 Mar ; :1-24
• CAS Registry Number:
  Asbestos (CAS RN 1332-21-4)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1992
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  2869 - Industrial organic chemicals, not elsewhere classified - (SIC)
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:b490161ece894c3dfecf49e97bf62b18b7f1294a743317eae8c67a9e8c4d53f03937bb6a94b32e0205d3558e0f2bbf42f95b50119e7f7ae44d7fa8f5b71a2b4d
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/171597/cdc_171597_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 298.41 KB ]