Health Hazard Evaluation Report: HETA-86-456-1877: South Texas Nuclear Project; Wadsworth, Texas

Details

• Personal Author:
  Hartle, Richard W. ; Sinks, Thomas H.
• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Description:
  In response to a confidential request, an evaluation was made of an outbreak of dermatitis among workers at the South Texas Nuclear Project construction site (SIC-1629), Wadsworth, Texas. The dermatitis occurred ten times more frequently among carpenters than other laborers, with the incidence in 1986 being 250 percent greater than it was in 1985. Some workers demonstrated pruritic, macular/papular lesions. Carpenters working on the inside of the power project buildings had a higher incidence of skin disease than those employed on the outside of the buildings. Samples of plywood and lumber treated with fire retardant indicated that they contained 3 and 5 percent phosphate, respectively. Arsenic was not detected but formaldehyde (50000) was detected at 59 parts per million. General environmental air samples were taken with no evidence found of airborne phosphate, melamine, dicyandiamide, or formaldehyde. Concentrations of total particulates ranged from 0.1 to 0.6mg/m3. The authors conclude that the workers were probably suffering from a contact dermatitis. The authors recommend that carpenters working on scaffolding crews and those sawing treated lumber wear gloves and long sleeve shirts, carpenters sawing wood wear particulate masks to avoid inhalation, good personal hygiene measures be followed, and medical surveillance be conducted to monitor construction workers for dermatitis.
• Subjects:
  Construction Industry Dermatitis Dust Hypersensitivity Occupational Health Safety Skin Skin Diseases Wood
• Keywords:
  Allergic-reactions Construction-industry Dermatitis Fire-retardant Lumber And Plywood Hazard-Confirmed HETA-86-456-1877 NIOSH-Author NIOSH-Health-Hazard-Evaluation NIOSH-Technical-Assistance-Report Occupational-dermatitis OSHA Region 6 Power Plant Construction Rash Skin-exposure Skin-irritants Wood-dusts

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• Series:
  Health Hazard Evaluation Reports (HHE)
• Subseries:
  Health Evaluation and Technical Assistance (HETA)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHHETA864561877
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Texas ; OSHA Region 6
• 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:
  17 pdf pages
• Contributor:
  O'Malley, Michael ; Conway, Kathy
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00180439
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB88-237318
• 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 86-456-1877, 1988 Mar ; :1-21
• CAS Registry Number:
  Formaldehyde (CAS RN 50-00-0)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1988
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  1629 - Heavy construction, not elsewhere classified - (SIC)
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:647f297da199c836d7620e8d279d6013c5f34910961a86305d4446ace25b68906bb2f108b4aceae40b6ef73b8b07f15f20d29cb57eb919002e88babba66847ab
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/171920/cdc_171920_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 188.48 KB ]