Health Hazard Evaluation Report: HETA-83-162-1746: Handy and Harman, Inc.; Fairfield, Connecticut

Details

• Personal Author:
  Cherniack, Martin G. ; Handke, Jan L. ; Kominsky, John R. ; McConnell, Robert S. ; McManus, Kevin P.
• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Description:
  A request was received from the United States Steelworkers to investigate possible health hazards related to employee exposures to beryllium (7440417), arsenic (7440382), lead (7439921), nickel (7440020), cadmium (7440439), and silver (7440224) at Handy and Harman, Inc. (SIC-3341), located in Fairfield, Connecticut. Granulomatous lung disease was present in five employees of the refinery, four of whom had worked in the furnace area. The investigation did result in the confirmation that a health hazard from beryllium exposure has existed at this facility. Four of the five cases were work related. Of 121 personal air samples, 114 exceeded the OSHA permissible exposure limit (PEL) for silver, 62 exceeded the NIOSH recommended exposure limit (REL) for beryllium, 55 exceeded the OSHA PEL for lead, 54 exceeded the NIOSH REL for nickel, and 6 exceeded the NIOSH REL for arsenic. Cadmium levels are to be maintained at the lowest feasible limit. The 39 personal air samples from the manufacturing melt area showed exposure to cadmium from 9.3 to 115 micrograms per cubic meter (microg/m3), and silver concentrations ranging from 11 to 104microg/m3. All of the silver concentrations exceeded the OSHA PEL. The authors conclude that a health hazard from beryllium exposure has and may still exist at this facility. Recommendations include the use of rubber gaskets on drums during blender and crusher unloading, redesign of ventilation hoods and their operation at sufficient velocity, the use of respirators in the melt room, and systematic medical examinations.
• Subjects:
  Beryllium Metals Metal Workers Occupational Health Poisoning Safety Silver
• Keywords:
  Arsenic Beryllium Beryllium-compounds Beryllium-poisoning Beryllium Disease Cadmium Granulomatous Disease Hazard-Confirmed HETA-83-162-1746 Lead Metal-refining Metallic-poisoning Nickel NIOSH-Author NIOSH-Health-Hazard-Evaluation NIOSH-Technical-Assistance-Report OSHA Region 1 Sarcoidosis Silver Smelters

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• Series:
  Health Hazard Evaluation Reports (HHE)
• Subseries:
  Health Evaluation and Technical Assistance (HETA)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHHETA831621746
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Connecticut ; 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:
  44 pdf pages
• Contributor:
  Johnson, Patty
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00166997
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB87-184701
• 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 83-162-1746, 1986 Nov ; :1-41
• CAS Registry Number:
  Beryllium (CAS RN 7440-41-7) ; Arsenic (CAS RN 7440-38-2) ; Lead (CAS RN 7439-92-1) ; Nickel (CAS RN 7440-02-0) ; Cadmium (CAS RN 7440-43-9) ; Silver (CAS RN 7440-22-4)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1987
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  3341 - Secondary nonferrous metals - (SIC)
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:99b1275902481ea4cd45432da56c05672f373c6f53463d1a2bad0d899bcc2e045e9cb0cc83d41ee4f5f8f76fbe7b6abc48e5c58d6159d68f21e062e9be40634d
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/172143/cdc_172143_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 9.15 MB ]