Health Hazard Evaluation Report: HETA-86-472-1832: Commercial Office Buildings; Boston, Massachusetts

Details

• Personal Author:
  Kominsky, John R.
• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Description:
  Surface and air contamination by polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) (1336363), polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs), and polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs) were studied in two office buildings (SIC-9199) in Boston to obtain background levels for comparison with cleanup guidelines for another building, the 50 Staniford Street Office Building, which had experienced a transformer fire in 1981. Charles River Park Properties requested the study. Concentrations of PCBs on workspace surfaces ranged from less than 1 to 69 micrograms/square meter (microg/m2) and less than 1 to 110microg/m2. Concentrations of PCDFs on work surfaces ranged from 0.48 to 5.4 nanograms per square meter (ng/m2), and PCDD concentrations from 2.8 to 146ng/m2. Concentrations of PCBs in workspace air samples ranged from 0.06 to 0.31 micrograms per cubic meter. Airborne PCDFs were undetected except in three of 16 samples containing tetra and penta isomers. Airborne PCDDs were undetected except for hepta and octa isomers. While concentrations of PCBs, PCDFs, and PCDDs present in office air and on workspace surfaces as background levels were below hazardous levels, surfaces of indoor air handling units contained levels of PCBs, and to a lesser extent tetra PCDD equivalents, which were in excess of guideline values. Surfaces with higher contaminant levels were not expected to be high skin contact surfaces. PCBs were significantly correlated with PCDDs and PCDFs in terms of surface concentrations.
• Subjects:
  Carcinogens Dioxins Environmental Monitoring Halothane Hydrocarbons Occupational Health Polychlorinated Biphenyls Safety
• Keywords:
  Air Air-sampling Background Chlorinated-hydrocarbons Halogenated-hydrocarbons Hazards-Confirmed HETA-86-472-1832 NIOSH-Author NIOSH-Health-Hazard-Evaluation NIOSH-Technical-Assistance-Report Office-workers Office Building OSHA Region 1 PCBs PCDDs PCDFs Polychlorinated Biphenyls Polychlorinated Dibenzo-p-dioxins Polychlorinated Dibenzofurans Surface TCDD-equivalents

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• Series:
  Health Hazard Evaluation Reports (HHE)
• Subseries:
  Health Evaluation and Technical Assistance (HETA)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHHETA864721832
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Massachusetts ; OSHA Region 1
• 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:
  39 pdf pages
• Contributor:
  Straub, Wesley E. ; McManus, Kevin P. ; Parker, Joan N. ; Morse, Elice P. ; Nalls, Donald ; O'Neill, Pat ; Lothridge, Brenda ; Rauvola, Holli ; Newcomb, Jim ; Newcomb, Linda ; Upton, Bill ; Smith, Kym
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00175418
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB88-162706
• 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 86-472-1832, 1987 Sep ; :1-45
• CAS Registry Number:
  Polychlorinated biphenyl(s)-PCB(s) (CAS RN 1336-36-3)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1987
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  9199 - General government, not elsewhere classified - (SIC)
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:5b4aa82c87fa23a96d6ffaaca1cb753d4ea7b039b2dc783283db768823cc9e68cb24452e64f9f624e4e359ed0f9b2a882279aa1d4cddfc590f2db015527c7a89
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/172061/cdc_172061_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 278.08 KB ]