Health Hazard Evaluation Report: HETA-87-075-1988: American Cyanamid; Wallingford, Connecticut

Details

• Personal Author:
  Bicknell, Ralph J. ; Fidler, Anne T. ; Kaiser, Edward A. ; Koenig, Joy ; McManus, Kevin P.
• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Description:
  In response to a request from the International Chemical Workers Union, an evaluation was made of possible hazardous exposures to workers in the Metal Coated Fibers (MCF) department of American Cyanamid (SIC-3471), Wallingford, Connecticut. A walk-through evaluation was made of the MCF where 24 employees worked to unwind graphite fibers as a continuous strand through plating tanks, plate nickel onto the fiber, dry it and rewind it. A second operation involved the use of epoxy resins on the nickel coated fiber and then cutting the fiber into various sizes. Air quality monitoring revealed the following concentrations: methyl-chloroform (71556), 7.7 to 48.15mg/m3
  
  methylene-chloride (75092), 13.9 to 74.7mg/m3
  
  nickel (7440020), 7.3 to 51.2 micrograms/m3
  
  and synthetic graphite (7782425), 0.00003 to 0.23mg/m3. Respirators were used in portions of the operation so that these amounts do not necessarily reflect employee exposure levels. Medical examinations revealed seven of 56 workers had a work-related rash. Only two employees had a positive patch test to nickel. The authors conclude that excessive exposure to nickel and potential exposure to methylene-chloride existed in the MCF department. Irritant dermatitis was apparently associated with exposures on the sizing line. The authors recommend measures to be taken to reduced exposures to nickel and other chemicals.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Electroplating Hydrocarbons Nickel Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Safety Skin Solvents Trichloroethylene
• Keywords:
  Chlorinated-hydrocarbons Coating, Engraving, And Allied Services Coating Nickel Coatings Electroplaters Electroplating, Plating, Polishing, Anodizing And Coloring Hazard-Confirmed HETA-87-075-1988 Methylene Chloride Nickel-compounds NIOSH-Author NIOSH-Health-Hazard-Evaluation NIOSH-Technical-Assistance-Report Occupational-exposure Organic-solvents OSHA Region 1 Plating Skin-exposure Synthetic Graphite Fibers Trichloroethylene

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• Series:
  Health Hazard Evaluation Reports (HHE)
• Subseries:
  Health Evaluation and Technical Assistance (HETA)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHHETA870751988
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Connecticut ; OSHA Region 1
• 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:
  27 pdf pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00193557
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB90-179268
• Citation:
  Cincinnati, OH: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, HETA 87-075-1988, 1989 Sep ; :1-34
• CAS Registry Number:
  1,1,1-Trichloroethane (CAS RN 71-55-6) ; Methylene chloride (CAS RN 75-09-2) ; Nickel (CAS RN 7440-02-0) ; Graphite (natural) (CAS RN 7782-42-5)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1989
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  3471 - Plating and polishing - (SIC) ; 3479 - Metal coating and allied services - (SIC)
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:d6e6ba08b58d9c561e8e8f659ccc4021b532f7905e48dcafa45c482fd264ee40342f2e9f0e29acb51a98052abd17c564b81bd42fec19c2e3a29f9f6bd236573a
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/171799/cdc_171799_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 176.44 KB ]