Health Hazard Evaluation Report: HETA-86-053-1933: Gray Printing Company; Fostoria, Ohio

Details

• Personal Author:
  Boiano, James M. ; Cantor, Fredric L. ; Crandall, Michael S. ; Fidler, Anne T.
• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Description:
  In response to a request from the Graphics and Communications International Union at the Gray Printing Company (SIC-2752), located in Fostoria, Ohio, a study was made of potential employee exposures to solvents used in the offset printing process at that site. The company produced 30 monthly magazines plus various commercial catalogs and brochures. The employment at the site was 185 persons. Equipment used in the production of printed material included photographic typesetting, and sheet fed and roll fed offset lithographic printing processes. Over two workdays the sheet fed press operator's isopropanol (67630) exposures ranged from 247 to 501mg/m3 with personal breathing zone naphtha (8030306) concentrations of 0.03 to 8.9mg/m3. The web fed press operator's naphtha exposures ranged from 0.03 to 7.7 mg/m3. These workers were also exposed to low concentrations of isopropanol. The highest short term isopropanol exposure was 726mg/m3. Short term exposures to blanket and roller cleaning solvent were low, less than 10mg/m3. A higher than expected reporting of symptoms related to central nervous system depression, difficulty in concentrating, dizziness, cough, chest pain, and dry skin were noted among workers. The authors conclude that there was an increased prevalence of neurotoxic, respiratory, and skin problems among workers using organic solvents. Due to the prevalence of these symptoms, the authors recommend measures for reducing employee exposure to solvents. These recommendations center around the use of gloves, respiratory protection equipment, and good work habits.
• Subjects:
  Inhalation Exposure Nervous System Nervous System Diseases Occupational Health Printing Safety Skin Skin Absorption Solvents
• Keywords:
  Alcohols Comnmercial Printing Hazard-Confirmed HETA-86-053-1933 Inhalants Lithographic Naphthas Nervous-system-disorders Neuropathology Neurotoxic Symptoms NIOSH-Author NIOSH-Health-Hazard-Evaluation NIOSH-Technical-Assistance-Report Organic-solvents OSHA Region 5 Printing-industry Skin-absorption Skin-exposure Solvent-vapors Solvents

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• Series:
  Health Hazard Evaluation Reports (HHE)
• Subseries:
  Health Evaluation and Technical Assistance (HETA)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHHETA860531933
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Ohio ; 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:
  26 pdf pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00185310
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB89-164727
• 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 86-053-1933, 1988 Oct ; :1-30
• CAS Registry Number:
  Isopropyl alcohol (CAS RN 67-63-0) ; Petroleum ether (CAS RN 8030-30-6)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1989
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  2752 - Commercial printing, lithographic - (SIC)
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:56f86ecfa200f3899cc0edfc93487267de5516bf9d4ef1bb3fda9b64ddca4f8d1aa985aca24f44808feb67168e84e0567d7992d6c4680a74ffa9580f1a7c911f
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/171861/cdc_171861_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 175.25 KB ]