Health Hazard Evaluation Report: HETA-86-375-1735: Primary Children's Hospital; Salt Lake City, Utah

Details

• Personal Author:
  Gunter, Bobby J. ; Reno, Stanley J.
• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Description:
  A request was received from the Department of Surgery at Primary Childrens Hospital (SIC-8070) to investigate exposures in operating rooms and recovery room for nitrous-oxide (10024972), ethrane (13838169), halothane (151677), and isoflurane. The NIOSH criteria of 0.5 parts per million (ppm) was exceeded for ethrane in 17 of 24 air samples (71 percent). The 0.5ppm criteria for halothane was exceeded in 13 of 24 samples (54 percent). The 0.5ppm criteria for isoflurane was exceeded in 2 of 24 samples (8 percent). Nitrous- oxide was examined in 32 air samples taken from workers and in 31 of these the concentration exceeded the criteria of 25ppm. During interviews of the medical personnel, there were very few complaints and none suffered any medical condition which they related to exposure. All operating rooms exhibited excessive exposures to ethrane, halothane, isoflurane and nitrous-oxide due to a lack of sufficient air changes per hour. These levels would be significantly lower if adequate ventilation was provided. The method of administering anesthetics differs in a children's hospital, from an adult situation. The authors conclude that a health hazard existed for overexposure to ethrane, halothane, isoflurane and nitrous-oxide in the operating rooms. The authors recommend that the slip connections and high pressure nitrous-oxide connections be checked by the anesthesiologist. An air monitoring system must be in use at all times. Increased ventilation is recommended.
• Subjects:
  Anesthesia Enflurane Health Care Facilities Workforce And Services Health Personnel Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Anesthesiology Anesthetics Ethrane Halothane Hazard-Confirmed Health-care-facilities Health-care-personnel HETA-86-375-1735 Hospitals Isoflurane Medical-facilities NIOSH-Author NIOSH-Health-Hazard-Evaluation NIOSH-Technical-Assistance-Report Nitrous Oxide OSHA Region 8 Surgery

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• Series:
  Health Hazard Evaluation Reports (HHE)
• Subseries:
  Health Evaluation and Technical Assistance (HETA)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHHETA863751735
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Utah ; OSHA Region 8
• 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:
  15 pdf pages
• Contributor:
  DiGiacomo, Marile F.
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00165815
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB87-163408
• 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 86-375-1735, 1986 Sep ; :1-13
• CAS Registry Number:
  Nitrous oxide (CAS RN 10024-97-2) ; Ethrane (CAS RN 13838-16-9) ; Halothane (CAS RN 151-67-7)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1986
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  8062 - General medical & surgical hospitals - (SIC)
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:98c68f30d3a0a3e69f69213de0e0522bf9af7bdc9f665497ba0d35c4914868e73057fc4773a30fc6b5286d6bf2c38fb7d660aafba753e52fabc95f8737c2c11f
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/172164/cdc_172164_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 540.16 KB ]