Health Hazard Evaluation Determination Report: HHE-72-53-70: HHE-72-54-71; HHE-72-55-72: HHE-72-56-73: HHE-72-57-74: HHE-72-58-75: Five Retail Stores: Seattle, Washington

Details

• Personal Author:
  Polakoff, Phillip L. ; Vandervort, Robert
• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Description:
  In response to requests from retail meat wrapping employees in and around the Seattle, Washington area, evaluations were conducted at retail stores to determine possible hazardous conditions to the employees arising from thermal decomposition products of polyvinyl- chloride (9002862) (PVC) meat packaging film. Most of the wrapping operations observed during the study involved pulling out a desired length of film, wrapping the film around a tray or cut of meat, severing the film using the hot wire cutoff, folding the film ends under the package, and sealing the folded ends by touching the package to the heated pad. The main degradation products produced during the heat cutting and heat sealing included di-2-ethyl-hexyl- adipate (103231), diisooctyl-adipate (1330865), and hydrogen- chloride (7647010) (HCl). HCl was found in very low concentrations in the meat wrapping environment. Pulmonary function tests of the population of meat wrappers involved in the study revealed no gross pulmonary effects in comparison to a comparison population after one work shift of meat wrapping. The authors conclude that a larger sample of personnel involved in meat wrapping should be examined to determine possible serious consequences of exposure to these fumes.
• Subjects:
  Food-Processing Industry Food Handling Food Industry Occupational Health Plastics Polyvinyl Chloride Safety
• Keywords:
  D-2-Ethyl Hexyl Adipate Food-processing-industry Grocery-stores Hazards-Confirmed HHE-72-53-70 HHE-72-54-71 HHE-72-55-72 HHE-72-56-73 HHE-72-57-74 HHE-72-58-75 Meat-handlers Meat Wrapping NIOSH-Author NIOSH-Health-Hazard-Evaluation OSHA Region 10 Plastic-films Plastic-seals Pulmonary Function Test PVC PVC Film Retail-workers

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• Series:
  Health Hazard Evaluation Reports (HHE)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHHHE72535455565758707172737475
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Washington ; OSHA Region 10
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DTS - Division of Technical Services
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  22 pdf pages
• Contributor:
  Flesch, Jerome P. ; Lapp, N. Leroy ; Apol, Arvin G. ; Gunter, Bobby J. ; Gais, Richard
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00190601
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB-229709
• Citation:
  Cincinnati, OH: U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, HHE-72-53-70, HHE-72-54-71, HHE-72-55-72, HHE-72-56-73, HHE-72-57-74, HHE-72-58-75, 1973 Sep ; :1-21
• CAS Registry Number:
  Polyvinyl Chloride (CAS RN 9002-86-2) ; Bis(2-ethylhexyl) adipate (CAS RN 103-23-1) ; Diisooctyl adipate (CAS RN 1330-86-5) ; Hydrogen chloride (CAS RN 7647-01-0)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1973
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:a374237a22c4a983945c4456763245eacf4a59d298265303991099b847345eade73692b8d4aa950c258c4021650504732367ff1b586ee89b9b93a1ae0e8bb86e
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/171825/cdc_171825_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 4.13 MB ]