Health Hazard Evaluation Report: HETA-88-314-2152: Lutheran Medical Center; Brooklyn, New York

Details

• Personal Author:
  Almaguer, Daniel ; Driscoll, Richard J.
• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Description:
  In response to a confidential request from employees of the Lutheran Medical Center (SIC-8062), Brooklyn, New York, a study was conducted of exposure to noxious odors from the hospital's pathological waste incinerator. The employees suggested that infectious waste disposal practices and the manner in which the incinerator was operated were unnecessarily exposing the workers to the hazardous materials. Two of eight interviewed workers in the Nursery, Pediatrics, and Materials Delivery Departments regularly experienced nausea, headaches, dry scratchy throat, and burning eyes. Tracer gas evaluations indicated that reentrainment of incinerator/scrubber stack emissions was possible under certain conditions but there were no documented overexposures to any of the chemicals evaluated. No written respiratory protection program was in place at the time of the survey. The authors conclude that there were no documented overexposures to any of the substances evaluated, but reentrainment of incinerator/scrubber stack emissions is possible under certain meteorological conditions. The authors recommend the establishment of a written respiratory protection program. The pathological waste incinerator was shut down shortly after this survey
  
  recommendations are provided should the incinerator ever be restarted.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Biological Products Hazardous Substances Health Personnel Hospitals Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Safety Ventilation Waste Management
• Keywords:
  Biological-material Combustion-products General Medical And Surgical Hospitals Hazard-Unconfirmed Hazardous-materials Health-care-personnel HETA-88-314-2152 Hospital Refuse Incineration Metals NIOSH-Author NIOSH-Health-Hazard-Evaluation NIOSH-Technical-Assistance-Report Occupational-exposure OSHA Region 2 Particulates Refuse Systems Sulfur Hexafluoride Tracer Gas Ventilation-systems Waste-disposal-systems

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• Series:
  Health Hazard Evaluation Reports (HHE)
• Subseries:
  Health Evaluation and Technical Assistance (HETA)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHHETA883142152
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  New York ; OSHA Region 2
• 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:
  23 pdf pages
• Contributor:
  Johnston, Ova E. ; Seitz, Teresa A. ; Smith, Jerome P.
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00204372
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB92-145838
• 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 88-314-2152, 1991 Oct ; :1-27
• Editor(s):
  Humphries, Donna M.
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1992
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  8062 - General medical & surgical hospitals - (SIC) ; 4953 - Refuse systems - (SIC)
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:1289e36756ccf955f16ff8871968e3ff8f27de32950497eff41c22d779ca9ee365d21e9e35705b0acac42971b307429f50e8c85bea250479eadb2f141ba9625f
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/171626/cdc_171626_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 243.18 KB ]