Health Hazard Evaluation Report: MHETA-88-249-1931: Community Savings Association; Finleyville, Pennsylvania

Details

• Personal Author:
  Costa, Carol ; Sanderson, Wayne T.
• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Description:
  In response to a request from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, an evaluation was made of possible hazardous working conditions at the Finleyville Branch of the Community Savings Association (SIC-6036), located in Finleyville, Pennsylvania. Employees had been sensitized to a fungus and were experiencing nausea, headache, fatigue, sinus congestion and difficulty in breathing even after action to control the fungus had been taken. The first allergic reaction was noted in October of 1986 with four more cases developing by December 5 of that same year. During early February of 1987 the wall in the storeroom was scraped, cleaned, and painted with a fungal resistant paint. On March 16 the office was closed early due to three full time employees suffering the aforementioned symptoms plus dermatological symptoms of an allergic reaction. Additional control efforts were likewise unsuccessful. Analysis indicated that exposure to microorganisms and an inadequate supply of fresh air were likely the causes of the symptoms experienced by these workers. No evidence of any pulmonary damage among the exposed workers was found. The authors recommend that the ventilation, heating, and air conditioning unit be operated according to the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air- Conditioning Engineers, Incorporated (ASHRAE) standards
  
  that relative humidity should range between 20 to 50 percent
  
  that the storeroom wall be maintained free of microbial growth
  
  and that files in open boxes be cleaned and placed in enclosed cabinets to reduce further contamination.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Air Pollutants, Occupational Air Pollution, Indoor Dust Environmental Health Fungi Manufacturing And Industrial Facilities Microbiology Occupational Health Particulate Matter Safety Ventilation

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• Keywords:
  Airborne-dusts Closed-building-syndrome Indoor-air-pollution Indoor-environmental-quality Indoor Air Pollution Materials-storage MHETA-88-249-1931 Microorganisms Molds NIOSH-Author NIOSH-Health-Hazard-Evaluation NIOSH-Technical-Assistance-Report Office-buildings Office-workers OSHA Region 3 Savings And Loans Storage-containers Tight Building Syndrome Ventilation Ventilation-systems

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• Series:
  Health Hazard Evaluation Reports (HHE)
• Subseries:
  Health Evaluation and Technical Assistance (HETA)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHMHETA882491931
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Pennsylvania ; OSHA Region 3
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DRDS - Division of Respiratory Disease Studies
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  16 pdf pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00184437
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB89-152250
• Citation:
  Morgantown, WV: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, MHETA 88-249-1931, 1988 Sep ; :1-14
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1988
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  6036 - Savings institutions, except federal - (SIC)
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:4e6398cca363d411968ff27d5e1388dbb2b07b52a526375777582515c6192c0fed0349b3f6f76e5acc8b98bdbe26e6b7a128a6ad7de889163184eb6b74165a02
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/171872/cdc_171872_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 581.14 KB ]