Health Hazard Evaluation Report: HETA-87-266-1860: U.S. Department of the Treasury, Bureau of Engraving and Printing; Washington, D.C.

Details

• Personal Author:
  Ahrenholz, Steven H.
• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Description:
  In response to a request from representatives of the Technical Services Division, U.S. Department of the Treasury (SIC-9311), Bureau of Engraving and Printing (SIC-2754) in Washington, D.C., a study was made of possible hazardous exposures to contaminants in inks supplied by currency ink contract bidders and of the Bureau's evaluation methods. Several incidents of irritant symptoms in workers had occurred. Personal and area air samples were analyzed for acetaldehyde (75070), acrolein (107028), formaldehyde (50000), butanal (123728), pentanal (110623), and hexanal (66251). Area formaldehyde samples ranged from 0.1 to 0.2 parts per million (ppm), and personal samples ranged from 0.3 to 0.6ppm. Butanal levels ranged from not detectable to 0.5ppm
  
  pentanal and hexane were present only in trace amounts. No samples contained any detectable levels of acetaldehyde or acrolein. Area samples for acetone (67641), 1,1,1-trichloroethane (71556), and toluene (108883) were negligible. Mineral-spirits (8030306) were detected up to 63mg/m3 and kerosene (8008206) up to 12mg/m3. The only hazardous condition found was exposure to formaldehyde at levels which have been shown to cause irritation. The author concludes that workers are exposed to potential irritant levels of formaldehyde vapor. Recommendations are made regarding modification of study protocol and analytical method, ventilation systems, monitoring air quality, speeding up offgassing of aldehydes from printed currency, and substitution of formaldehyde containing resins.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Environmental Monitoring Ink Irritants Occupational Health Printing Safety
• Keywords:
  Acetaldehyde Acrolein Air-sampling Butanal Commercial Printing, Gravure Currency Examination Currency Production Formaldehyde Hazard-Confirmed HETA-87-266-1860 Hexanal NIOSH-Author NIOSH-Health-Hazard-Evaluation NIOSH-Technical-Assistance-Report OSHA Region 3 Pentanal Printing-industry Printing-inks Public Finance, Taxation, And Monetary Policy Respiratory-irritants Sampling-methods

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• Series:
  Health Hazard Evaluation Reports (HHE)
• Subseries:
  Health Evaluation and Technical Assistance (HETA)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHHETA872661860
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  District of Columbia ; OSHA Region 3
• 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:
  29 pdf pages
• Contributor:
  Kennedy, Eugene R. ; Fox, Nancy ; Kurimo, Robert ; Jenkins, Sharon
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00179827
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB88-224142
• 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 87-266-1860, 1988 Jan ; :1-43
• CAS Registry Number:
  Acetaldehyde (CAS RN 75-07-0) ; Acrolein (CAS RN 107-02-8) ; Formaldehyde (CAS RN 50-00-0) ; Butanal (CAS RN 123-72-8) ; Pentanal (CAS RN 110-62-3) ; (n-)Hexanal (CAS RN 66-25-1) ; Acetone (CAS RN 67-64-1) ; 1,1,1-Trichloroethane (CAS RN 71-55-6) ; Toluene (CAS RN 108-88-3) ; Petroleum ether (CAS RN 8030-30-6) ; Kerosene (CAS RN 8008-20-6)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1988
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  2754 - Commercial printing, gravure - (SIC) ; 9311 - Finance, taxation, & monetary policy - (SIC)
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:2430f020424262a5eead567b058a607e878f1bc93309b9afebd531460d1020be6d57d0fc873865d8326a2edb64a4c5767da8beed3fc94613b5352c04ffd9cc66
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/171954/cdc_171954_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 275.56 KB ]