Health Hazard Evaluation Report: HETA-85-171-1710: International Bakers Services, Inc.; South Bend, Indiana

Details

• Personal Author:
  Hartle, Richard W. ; McConnell, Robert S.
• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Description:
  In response to a request from International Bakers Services, Inc. (SIC-2099), South Bend, Indiana, a health hazard evaluation was conducted in the mixing room. At this location in the factory, three employees are charged with weighing and loading a large variety of fragrances, flavorings, starch, and 50-to-100-pound bags of flour into one of three mixers. Considerable dust is generated during the loading and mixing tasks. At times, this dust level has been measured at 20 milligrams per cubic meter. When material was added to the mixers, employees wore a supplied air respirator. Workers did not always use the respirator during clean-up operations. Catastrophic fixed airway disease developed in two workers who had no known personal risk factors prior to employment at the factory. The disease is suggestive of bronchiolitis obliterans or emphysema. The workers demonstrated symptoms of the disease within 5 to 6 months of beginning employment. Two other workers in the mixing room were not affected. No specific etiology of the illnesses was identified. The authors conclude that a short-term exposure to a specific mix may have triggered the reaction and initiated the disease in these individuals. They recommend that when a specific etiology for a disease cannot be found, all airborne dust exposures should be controlled in the mixing room. In cases where engineering or ventilation changes alone may not be sufficient, protective equipment in the form of a respirator should be worn. This report also contains the walk-through survey report made at the facility to study control technology employed in the manual transfer of chemical powders.
• Subjects:
  Bacteria Dust Food-Processing Industry Food Handling Food Industry Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Amorphous Silica Bakers Bakery Supplies Bronchiolitis Obliterans Dust-control-equipment Dust-exposure Dusts Endotoxin Flavors Flour Food-handlers Food-processing Food-processing-equipment Food-processing-industry Food Preparations, Not Elsewhere Classified Fragrances Grain-dusts Grains Hazard-Confirmed HETA-85-171-1710 NIOSH-Author NIOSH-Health-Hazard-Evaluation NIOSH-Technical-Assistance-Report OSHA Region 5 Proteolytic Enzymes

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• Series:
  Health Hazard Evaluation Reports (HHE)
• Subseries:
  Health Evaluation and Technical Assistance (HETA)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHHETA851711710
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Indiana ; 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:
  42 pdf pages
• Contributor:
  Singal, Mitchell ; Robinson, Nola
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00163588
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB87-117057
• 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 85-171-1710, 1986 Jul ; :1-39
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1986
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  2099 - Food preparations, not elsewhere classified - (SIC)
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:691f324e8890f1f7ec627e41436e87e9bfa2cd7e9d43c40a648f81a82afd08026dc488138a27b3fe9515b24d0bedca9f093ef47458822dca744ea6ded1f603d6
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/172180/cdc_172180_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.63 MB ]