Health Hazard Evaluation Report: HETA-91-078-2132: Social Security Administration; San Juan, Puerto Rico

Details

• Personal Author:
  Boudreau, Yvonne A. ; Seitz, Teresa A.
• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Description:
  In response to a request from the American Federation of Government Employees (EFGE) local 2608, a study was undertaken of possible hazardous working conditions at the Social Security Administration, San Juan, Puerto Rico. The request was made in response to employee concerns and health complaints including cold temperatures, dust, asthma, sinus problems and irritation from tobacco smoke. At the time of the study there were about 70 employees occupying portions of two floors of the 18-story office building. During the study no specific health hazards were identified. However, the results of environmental studies did support employee concerns regarding thermal discomfort. Measurements indicated temperature and humidity combinations falling outside of the accepted limits. High relative humidity was noted on these two floors with humidity ranging from 56 to 71%. The authors conclude that there were no identified health hazards. The authors recommend that efforts be made to correct problems and deficiencies concerning the air distribution system, to restrict smoking to specific areas of the building, to prevent moisture incursion into occupied spaces and within the air handling system, and to clean the particulate build up around the air supply diffusers.
• Subjects:
  Air Pollution, Indoor Environmental Health Occupational Health Respiratory Tract Diseases Safety Smoke Tobacco Products
• Keywords:
  Carbon Dioxide Carbon Monoxide Government Office Hazard-Unconfirmed HETA-91-078-2132 Indoor-air-pollution Indoor-environmental-quality Indoor Air Quality NIOSH-Author NIOSH-Health-Hazard-Evaluation NIOSH-Technical-Assistance-Report Office-workers OSHA Region 2 Relative Humidity Respiratory-system-disorders Smoking Temperature Tobacco-smoke

  More +
• Series:
  Health Hazard Evaluation Reports (HHE)
• Subseries:
  Health Evaluation and Technical Assistance (HETA)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHHETA910782132
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Puerto Rico ; 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:
  10 pdf pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00202709
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB92-131671
• 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 91-078-2132, 1991 Aug ; :1-18
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1991
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:ece98ffa862d59e90ee0e44eefdd9c2eafe8641a9c3b8a4e2cf59fdd0b62082cfc3548e83e6cef73f6d64640c79f82f1fb9528bb68c60f7b1661460a2abf15fb
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/171638/cdc_171638_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 151.71 KB ]