Health Hazard Evaluation Report: HETA-85-491-1660: Cobe Laboratories, Inc.; Denver, Colorado

Details

• Personal Author:
  Gunter, Bobby J.
• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Description:
  Environmental surveys were conducted on November 19 and December 19, 1985 at Cobe Laboratories Inc. (SIC-2299), Lakewood and Arvada, Colorado. The Industrial Hygienist at Cobe Laboratories had requested an evaluation of radiofrequency (RF) radiation from heat sealers used for research or in the manufacture of plastic parts for disposable medical equipment. The electric (E) and magnetic (H) fields were measured at the face, chest, waist, hip, and feet positions of operators of the five heat sealers. The OSHA standard corresponds to a power density level of 4x10(4) volts squared per meter squared (V2/M2) (E-field) and 0.25 amperes squared per meter squared (A2/M2) (H-field). The American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists' (ACGIH) Threshold Limit Value (TLV) is 3.77x10(3)V2/M2 for the E-field and 0.027A2/M2 for the H-field. Measured exposures ranged up to 3.5x10(4)V2/M2 for the E-field and up to 0.05A2/M2 for the H-field, when corrected for machine duty cycles. The OSHA standard was not exceeded for any of the sealers, but the ACGIH TLVs were exceeded for the two research sealers and one of the manufacturing sealers. The author concluded that workers were overexposed to RF radiation while using three of the heat sealers. Additional shielding is recommended to lower exposures to less than the ACGIH TLVs.
• Subjects:
  Electricity Electromagnetic Phenomena Magnetic Fields Occupational Health Radiation Safety Textile Industry
• Keywords:
  Electrical-fields Electromagnetic-fields Hazard-Confirmed Heat Sealers HETA-85-491-1660 Magnetic-fields Miscellaneous, Textile Goods, Not Elsewhere Classified NIOSH-Author NIOSH-Health-Hazard-Evaluation NIOSH-Technical-Assistance-Report OSHA Region 8 Radiofrequency Radiation Shielding Textiles-industry

  More +
• Series:
  Health Hazard Evaluation Reports (HHE)
• Subseries:
  Health Evaluation and Technical Assistance (HETA)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHHETA854911660
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Colorado ; 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:
  13 pdf pages
• Contributor:
  Brewer, Marile
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00163107
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB86-222601
• 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 85-491-1660, 1986 Feb ; :1-10
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1986
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  2299 - Textile goods, not elsewhere classified - (SIC)
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:8e38c85287b2211c192a9de18e61a740adca38a92e6f41550076f4ca5db7f41af2d55404dbd4046276f98246cfa186fb019cfd15d8a4aeba5778eb82d62d4b85
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/172238/cdc_172238_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.37 MB ]