Health Hazard Evaluation Report: HETA-81-003-980: Babcock and Wilcox Company; Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Details

• Personal Author:
  Ahrenholz, Steven H. ; Klemme, Jay C. ; Zey, John N.
• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Description:
  In response to a request from the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers Union, Local 1849, an evaluation was made of possible hazardous working conditions at Babcock and Wilcox Company (SIC- 3317), Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Concern centered around possible exposures to biocides, dispersants and antiscaling agents added to circulating water systems which cool four annealing furnaces, two reheat furnaces and one air compressor. One employee each 6 months was assigned the task of adding these substances which required about 1 hour of his time, three times a week. Reported symptoms included headaches, lightheadedness, vomiting, muscle aches, fatigue, nose bleeds, mood fluctuations, alcohol intolerance, increased thirst, increased urination, nausea, blurred vision, dizziness, diarrhea, skin rash, and facial flushing. Sampling for dimethylformamide (68122) (DMF) indicated airborne concentrations ranging from below the level of detection to 1.01 parts per million (ppm). Concentrations for carbon-monoxide (630080) ranged from 10 to 15ppm. Levels of nitrogen oxides were below the limit of detection. The authors conclude that a health hazard did not exist at the time of the evaluation. The authors recommend that chemicals be moved into the enclosure for storage and that containers not be permitted to stand open. Protective equipment should be stored in a separate cabinet. Employees should be trained in the proper handling of chemicals. An upgrading of the respirator program was suggested. Employees should be educated concerning severe medical consequences of skin absorption of DMF and be alerted that even small amounts of alcohol consumption after working with DMF can result in some of the reported symptoms.
• Subjects:
  Eye Foreign Bodies Occupational Health Personal Protective Equipment Protective Clothing Safety Skin Solvents
• Keywords:
  Alcohol Intolerance Anti-scaling Biocide Carbon Monoxide Circulating Water System Cleaning-compounds Dimethylformamide Dispersant Eye-irritants Formamides Hazard-Unconfirmed HETA-81-003-980 Hyperglycemia NIOSH-Author NIOSH-Health-Hazard-Evaluation NIOSH-Technical-Assistance-Report Nitric Oxide Nitrogen Dioxide Organic-solvents OSHA Region 5 Protective-clothing Skin-exposure Skin-irritants Solvent-vapors Steel Pipe And Tubes

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• Series:
  Health Hazard Evaluation Reports (HHE)
• Subseries:
  Health Evaluation and Technical Assistance (HETA)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHHETA81003980
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Wisconsin ; OSHA Region 5
• 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:
  11 pdf pages
• Contributor:
  Woodruff, Jackie
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00179175
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB82-177080
• 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 81-003-980, 1981 Oct ; :1-9
• CAS Registry Number:
  Dimethylformamide (CAS RN 68-12-2) ; Carbon monoxide (CAS RN 630-08-0)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1982
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  3317 - Steel pipe and tubes - (SIC)
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:227d5563450b463eb6a7bff62703c4dc404bc035de0a27be31c29941c413618b7f4edad756d8a46966ed9b9b37157b8954e1fd9135e7768f98dc0b0fd5829f47
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/171972/cdc_171972_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.37 MB ]