Health Hazard Evaluation Report: HETA-87-412-L2054: Lederle Laboratories; Pearl River, New York

Details

• Personal Author:
  Baron, Sherry L. ; Seitz, Teresa A.
• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Description:
  In response to a request from the International Chemical Workers Union, a visit was made to Lederle Laboratories, Pearl River, New York, to investigate possible hazardous working conditions at that site. Workers were concerned over two women who had worked with Thiotepa (52244), a cancer chemotherapeutic agent, and given birth to children with similar heart defects. Approximately 50 workers were involved in the packaging of Thiotepa. A site visit and medical interviews with employees were conducted. Observations during the site visit raised some concerns, including the potential for exposure to Thiotepa powder and vapor, the adequacy of existing personal protective equipment, the poor adherence to the appropriate use of personal protective equipment during clean-up operations, the performance of quality control duties in an area where other unprotected workers were located, the lack of a barrier separating the Thiotepa capping area and the adjacent hallway, and the potential for reproductive toxicity. Thiotepa was found to exist in the air at room temperature in both particulate and vapor phases. It was not possible to determine whether the birth defects were caused by exposure to Thiotepa. The authors recommend specific measures to reduce exposure to Thiotepa.
• Subjects:
  Antineoplastic Agents Biopharmaceutics Carcinogens Mutagens Occupational Health Pharmacies Safety Teratogenesis
• Keywords:
  Antineoplastic-agents Hazard-Confirmed HETA-87-412-L2054 NIOSH-Author NIOSH-Health-Hazard-Evaluation NIOSH-Technical-Assistance-Report OSHA Region 2 Pharmaceutical-industry Pharmaceuticals Teratogens
• Series:
  Health Hazard Evaluation Reports (HHE)
• Subseries:
  Health Evaluation and Technical Assistance (HETA)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHHETA87412L2054
• 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:
  8 pdf pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00195617
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB91-132894
• 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 87-412-L2054, 1990 Jul ; :1-7
• CAS Registry Number:
  Thiotepa (CAS RN 52-24-4)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1990
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:818e5d610b2a13bed7dccc66f59319052f87981294dfe9f73d80bef111642b93ef9b21b4603ccc648dd8bf95a6cfec292bc9d5a3b58e25e80f561d9056084ea3
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/171723/cdc_171723_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 370.31 KB ]