Health Hazard Evaluation Report: HETA-85-045-1762: American Crystal Sugar Co.; Crookston, Minnesota

Details

• Personal Author:
  Almaguer, Daniel ; Boiano, James M.
• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Description:
  Employee exposures to airborne contaminants during sugar beet processing and to welding fumes during facility maintenance were evaluated at a sugar beet mill (SIC-2063) owned by the American Crystal Sugar Company (ACSCO), in response to a request from ACSCO's management and the American Federation of Grain Millers International Union. Sugar processing operations involved approximately 375 workers, and maintenance included about 175 of these workers. During beet processing, personal breathing zone and general air samples were collected and analyzed for several chemicals and total and respirable particulates of various dusts. Welding fumes were analyzed by inductively coupled plasma/atomic emission spectroscopy of personal filter samples. The following exposures were considered excessive by the most stringent criteria: lime kiln helper to total particulates (9.6 and 11.2mg/m3), Weibul storage bin housekeeper to sugar dust (13.4mg/m3), diffuser operator and charger to formaldehyde (50000) (0.05 to 0.09mg/m3), and welders and cutters to total welding fumes (2.3 to 84mg/m3) and specific metals, particularly hexavalent chromium (18540299) (0.003 to air and settled dust samples contained crystalline silica (14808607), representing a potential hazard. Recommendations include improved particulate containment and ventilation, use of respirators where appropriate, and formaldehyde replacement.
• Subjects:
  Air Pollutants, Occupational Carcinogens Dust Ferrous Compounds Metals Occupational Health Particulate Matter Safety Silicon Dioxide Welding
• Keywords:
  Arc-welding BCME Beet Sugar Bischloromethyl Ether Dust-exposure Exposure-levels Hazards-Confirmed HETA-85-045-1762 Hexavalent Cbromium Iron Oxide Metallic-fumes Nickel NIOSH-Author NIOSH-Health-Hazard-Evaluation NIOSH-Technical-Assistance-Report OSHA Region 5 Particulate-dust Pulp Dust Silica Sugar-beets Sugar-industry Sugar Dust Welding Fumes

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• Series:
  Health Hazard Evaluation Reports (HHE)
• Subseries:
  Health Evaluation and Technical Assistance (HETA)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHHETA850451762
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Minnesota ; 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:
  41 pdf pages
• Contributor:
  Zey, John N.
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00167873
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB87-189510
• 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 85-045-1762, 1986 Dec ; :1-48
• CAS Registry Number:
  Formaldehyde (CAS RN 50-00-0) ; Hexavalent chromium (CAS RN 18540-29-9) ; Nickel (CAS RN 7440-02-0) ; Silica, Crystalline (CAS RN 14808-60-7)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1987
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  2063 - Beet sugar - (SIC)
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:8e8bb49c54044541118b8f698e01b44be15d2636853f98bda78d20bca5552232b2df996cb6f0d0c0056bf925a2e7724f11ed5c5a458321aedf25505017bb4fcc
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/172138/cdc_172138_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 8.25 MB ]