Health Hazard Evaluation Report: HETA-87-321-1880: Barmet Aluminum Corporation; Livermore, Kentucky

Details

• Personal Author:
  Hills, Bruce W. ; Savery, Henry W.
• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Description:
  In response to a request from an employee, a study was made of possible hazardous working conditions at the Barmet Aluminum Corporation (SIC-3341), Livermore, Kentucky. Concern was expressed over exposure to aluminum (7429905) dross dust and ammonia (7664417) vapors in the dross mill, cast house, and furnace building. The raw materials used at the firm consisted of about 80 percent aluminum dross and 20 percent scrap aluminum metal. Analyses were made of a bulk sample of dross, personal breathing zone air, and area air. Ammonia vapors were present in potentially harmful quantities. Airborne concentrations of total dust, respirable dust, and respirable silica (7631869) dust exceeded NIOSH recommended exposure limits or OSHA permissible exposure limits. A self administered questionnaire was used to investigate symptoms in 12 workers from the dross mill and 12 workers from the rolling mill. Respiratory symptoms were not more common among dross mill workers than rolling mill workers. The authors conclude that workers were exposed to potentially hazardous levels of dust and ammonia vapor. The authors recommend specific measures to reduce dust concentration, control employee exposures to metal fumes, control noise exposures, and inform workers of the hazards of their jobs. Good housekeeping and work practices should be encouraged. Open topped spaces such as pits should be treated as confined spaces.
• Subjects:
  Ammonia Dust Metals Metal Workers Occupational Health Safety Silicon Dioxide
• Keywords:
  Aluminum Ammonia Dross Dust-control Hazard-Confirmed HETA-87-321-1880 Metal-rolling NIOSH-Author NIOSH-Health-Hazard-Evaluation NIOSH-Technical-Assistance-Report OSHA Region 4 Silica Smelters Smelting

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• Series:
  Health Hazard Evaluation Reports (HHE)
• Subseries:
  Health Evaluation and Technical Assistance (HETA)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHHETA873211880
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Kentucky ; OSHA Region 4
• 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:
  28 pdf pages
• Contributor:
  Fox, Nancy ; Burr, Gregory A. ; Anastas, Mazen ; Conway, Kathy
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00180440
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB88-237300
• 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 87-321-1880, 1988 Mar ; :1-26
• CAS Registry Number:
  Aluminum (CAS RN 7429-90-5) ; Ammonia (CAS RN 7664-41-7 ; Silica (CAS RN 7631-86-9)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1988
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  3341 - Secondary nonferrous metals - (SIC)
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:8d880b4da186d81d75cb061502bce5c14326d4d21df7142445015a3a52c055a8a3987f66cd0db6c67db6d9f7681da0ef609352cac71bfe845b90327b2e79e1dc
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/171919/cdc_171919_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 887.01 KB ]