Health Hazard Evaluation Report: MHETA-86-528-1889: McGraw-Edison; Canonsburg, Pennsylvania

Details

• Personal Author:
  Knutti, Elizabeth B. ; Sanderson, Wayne T.
• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Description:
  In response to a request from OSHA, possible hazardous working conditions at the McGraw-Edison (SIC-3612) facility located in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania were investigated. The company produced large power transformers plus various sizes of power circuit breakers. Exposures to welding fumes, high voltage electricity, paint solvent vapors, noise, and transformer oils were possible. Past exposures to oils containing polychlorinated biphenyls (1336363), and asbestos (1332214) were possible. A group of 58 employees was examined in an attempt to verify possible clustering of cancer cases. Of the original 58, no records were found for three, and 18 individuals had died but had never had cancer. The remaining 37 were all confirmed cancer cases covering 13 different types. An apparent clustering of cancer in recent years was demonstrated. All but one case occurred in white males between the ages of 43 and 69 years. Lung cancer was the most common type, 16 of the 37 cases. The authors conclude that, compared with the general population, lung cancer was occurring probably at no greater rate among these employees than in the general population. No evidence was found to associate causally the number of cancer cases among the workers and any occupational exposures they may have been experiencing at this facility. The authors recommend that a thorough industrial hygiene survey be made at this facility.
• Subjects:
  Lung Lung Diseases Mortality Neoplasms Occupational Health Respiratory System Respiratory Tract Diseases Safety Solvents
• Keywords:
  Cancer Cancer-rates Cluster Analysis Electrical-equipment Electrical Equipment Electrical Transformers Hazard-Unconfirmed Lung-cancer MHETA-86-528-1889 Mortality-rates NIOSH-Author NIOSH-Health-Hazard-Evaluation NIOSH-Technical-Assistance-Report Organic-solvents OSHA Region 3

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• Series:
  Health Hazard Evaluation Reports (HHE)
• Subseries:
  Health Evaluation and Technical Assistance (HETA)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHMHETA865281889
• 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:
  26 pdf pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00181280
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB88-247911
• 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 86-528-1889, 1988 Mar ; :1-24
• CAS Registry Number:
  Polychlorinated biphenyl(s)-PCB(s) (CAS RN 1336-36-3) ; Asbestos (CAS RN 1332-21-4)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1988
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  3612 - Transformers, except electronic - (SIC)
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:051fb832b1e641bd4d43019b8aa08c3753a929b4c04f1d8a3207a9f20be2bd9f81fc1c87bdc9fe2adaf14ae718370489943f3adbc0a1ecf8e166addd2f99ab8a
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/171913/cdc_171913_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 743.07 KB ]