Health Hazard Evaluation Report: HETA-91-056-2129: Oakland County Department of Social Services; Pontiac, Michigan

Details

• Personal Author:
  Decker, John A.
• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Description:
  In response to a request from a representative of the United Auto Workers local 6000 an investigation was begun of possible hazardous working conditions at the Oakland County Department of Social Services (SIC-8322) located in Pontiac, Michigan. Including visitors, as many as 130 to 150 people may occupy the building at one time. Some of the work performed in the building includes word processing, typing, filing, photocopying along with interviewing and counseling activities. Average environmental carbon-dioxide (124389) concentrations ranged from a low in the morning of 350 parts per million (ppm) to a high of 875ppm in the afternoon. Temperatures measured over four sampling times ranged from 73.4 to 77.7 degrees-F. Average relative humidities ranged from a high of 32.2% to a low of 20.4%. Respirable particulate concentrations were typical for office buildings except for the smoking room where levels increased to nearly 12 times the EPA ambient air quality standards for airborne particulates. Personal breathing zone ozone (10028156) concentrations measured at two photocopy machines ranged from 0.02 to 0.18ppm. Most of the 85 subjects participating reported thermocomfort complaints, in addition to a number of nonspecific symptoms that could have resulted from a variety of causes. The authors conclude that a potential health hazard existed from exposure to ozone generated from the photocopy machines. The authors recommend measures to improve air quality and comfort in the building.
• Subjects:
  Air Pollution, Indoor Environmental Health Environmental Monitoring Lung Occupational Health Respiratory System Respiratory Tract Diseases Safety
• Keywords:
  Air-quality-monitoring Carbon Dioxide Closed-building-syndrome Hazard-Confirmed HETA-91-056-2129 Indoor-air-pollution Indoor-environmental-quality Indoor Air Quality Lung-irritants NIOSH-Author NIOSH-Health-Hazard-Evaluation NIOSH-Technical-Assistance-Report Office-workers OSHA Region 5 Ozone Relative Humidity Respiratory-system-disorders Sick-building Syndrome Social Service Centers Temperature

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• Series:
  Health Hazard Evaluation Reports (HHE)
• Subseries:
  Health Evaluation and Technical Assistance (HETA)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHHETA910562129
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Michigan ; OSHA Region 5
• 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:
  28 pdf pages
• Contributor:
  Crandall, Michael S.
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00202711
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB92-133255
• 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 91-056-2129, 1991 Aug ; :1-44
• CAS Registry Number:
  Carbon dioxide (CAS RN 124-38-9) ; Ozone (CAS RN 10028-15-6)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1991
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  8322 - Individual and family services - (SIC)
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:f45fda1508618f27d6f97f06ca3d241e510dc4c626d9b1c72896b67d5b30b4840762014c27a806603ef93b3a2d232463c30760be80634ffc1116468b4db382ae
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/171636/cdc_171636_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 188.70 KB ]