Health Hazard Evaluation Report: HETA-84-180-1776: Jacksonville Fire Department; Jacksonville, Florida

Details

• Personal Author:
  Kominsky, John R.
• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Description:
  The efficiency of a trichlorotrifluoroethane based system to remove polychlorinated-biphenyls (1336363) (PCBs) from Nomex fabric garments used by the Jacksonville Fire Department (SIC-9224), Jacksonville, Florida was evaluated. The evaluation was requested by the International Association of Fire Fighters on behalf of Local 122. Garments had been contaminated during a fire at a transformer oil reclamation facility. The system used a sealed dry cleaning machine with a revolving chamber and trichlorotrifluoroethane solvent. From 66 to 99 percent of fireborne PCB contamination and more than 99 percent of experimental contamination was removed from fire fighters' protective clothing using the system. Because of uncertainty concerning the adequacy of decontamination, the garments were replaced. The author concludes that this system can remove a high percentage of PCB contamination
  
  without established permissible limits for fabric levels of PCBs, it is not known if the level of decontamination is adequate. The author recommends that: hazards associated with the PCB exposure be thoroughly explained to firemen
  
  only a limited number of fire fighters should enter potentially contaminated areas
  
  those entering these areas should wear a self contained breathing apparatus operated in the positive pressure mode and standard turn out gear
  
  and reusable equipment should be grouped according to perceived degree of contamination and washed with an alkaline or nonionic synthetic detergent.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Firefighters Fires Hazardous Substances Occupational Health Personal Protective Equipment Polychlorinated Biphenyls Protective Clothing Safety
• Keywords:
  Decontamination Fire-protection-equipment Fire Fighters Firemen Freon 113 Hazard-Unconfirmed Hazardous-materials HETA-84-180-1776 NIOSH-Author NIOSH-Health-Hazard-Evaluation NIOSH-Technical-Assistance-Report OSHA Region 4 PCBs Protective-clothing Trichlorotrifluoroethane

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• Series:
  Health Hazard Evaluation Reports (HHE)
• Subseries:
  Health Evaluation and Technical Assistance (HETA)
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Florida ; 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:
  24 pdf pages
• Contributor:
  McIlvanine, Eugene ; Eddins, Phil
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00169488
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB87-206595
• 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 84-180-1776, 1987 Feb ; :1-21
• CAS Registry Number:
  Polychlorinated biphenyl(s)-PCB(s) (CAS RN 1336-36-3)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1987
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  9224 - Fire protection - (SIC)
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:58be125703bb1c27c384c6e218b76267c9ba816d0ff1305093397a807f8faba5104662746c0921985fc579b3b7b75cf37d56ae2664f0ad16c6df3b32c94cbbbf
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/172118/cdc_172118_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 5.80 MB ]