Health Hazard Evaluation Report: HHE Report No. 2012-0107-3233: An evaluation of respiratory health at a syntactic foam manufacturing facility

Details

• Personal Author:
  Cummings, Kristin J. ; LeBouf, Ryan F. ; Schuler, Christine R. ; Stanton, Marcia L.
• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Description:
  Employees were exposed to a variety of chemicals during the manufacture of syntactic foam at this facility, the majority of which are irritants and some are recognized sensitizers and/ or asthmagens. Three years after the state health department investigated a cluster of work-related asthma in this facility, we found additional work-related asthma in current workers. Evidence includes 1) asthma diagnoses increased more than ten-fold after hire
  
  2) most current workers with a current asthma diagnosis described improvement in their asthma symptoms away from work
  
  3) current asthma diagnosis and symptoms were related to length of employment at the facility
  
  and 4) compared to non-production (administration) workers, workers who spent time in production areas reported more respiratory symptoms overall and more respiratory symptom that improved away from the facility. Although we could not determine which chemicals in use at the facility were responsible for these symptoms, our findings indicate a need for further exposure reduction that can be addressed through enhanced engineering controls, modified work practices, and improved use of respiratory protection. Surveillance for work-related respiratory symptoms and prompt relocation of affected workers are also critical.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Aldehydes Asthma Asthma, Occupational Engineering Epoxy Resins Formaldehyde Irritants Occupational Health Personal Protective Equipment Respiratory System Safety

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• Keywords:
  Administrative-controls Amines Anhydrides Bronchial-asthma Engineering-controls Epoxy Resin Oil And Gas Field Machinery And Equipment Manufacturing OSHA Region 1 Personal-protection Personal-protective-equipment Resins Respiratory Respiratory-irritants Sensitizers Surveillance-programs Syntactic Foam Work-practices Work-related Asthma

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• Series:
  Health Hazard Evaluation Reports (HHE)
• Subseries:
  Health Evaluation and Technical Assistance (HETA)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHHETA201201073233
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Massachusetts ; OSHA Region 1
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DRDS - Division of Respiratory Disease Studies
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  55 pdf pages
• Contributor:
  Blackley, David ; Cox-Ganser, Jean ; Edwards, Nicole ; Fedan, Kathleen ; McClelland, Tia L. ; Piacitelli, Chris ; White, Sandy
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20045896
• Citation:
  NIOSH [2015]. Health hazard evaluation report: An evaluation of respiratory health at a syntactic foam manufacturing facility. By Stanton ML, LeBouf R, Schuler CR, Cummings KJ. Morgantown, WV: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, NIOSH HHE Report No. 2012-0107-3233,
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2015
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  333132 - Oil and Gas Field Machinery and Equipment Manufacturing - (NAICS)
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:77491e7415657f49d42e6d8859878fce21de2583d88a7118ccbd040b587efb82e9efc30dd22e91a8c1914a723e24c074ff9b4bd80513f8e9e35f0890db7cecdb
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/172430/cdc_172430_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.78 MB ]