Evaluation of Employee Exposure to Lead and Other Chemicals at a Police Department

Details

• Personal Author:
  Fent, Kenneth W. ; Gibbins, John D. ; Niemeier, Todd R.
• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Description:
  The Health Hazard Evaluation (HHE) Program evaluated employees' exposure to lead when working in the parking garage adjacent to the firing range of a police department. Lead was found on surfaces inside the parking garage
  
  the firing range was identified as the main source of this contamination. Investigators determined that the firing range did not meet all of the ventilation design elements recommended by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. When investigators interviewed employees they found that most employees reported health symptoms that they felt were related to or made worse by the workplace. One employee who reported headache, tiredness, and leg weakness and pain had a higher than normal blood lead level. A lack of ventilation in the property room where illicit drugs were stored was also of concern. Illicit drugs were found on some surfaces in the property room. Employees were also concerned about water intrusion and mold growth on the ceiling tiles in offices, but investigators did not find visual of water intrusion or mold growth. HHE Program investigators recommended that the firing range be redesigned to meet all recommended design elements or that another firing range be used. Officers should be provided with non-lead bullets and lead-free primer. If bullets or primer containing lead are used then investigators recommended collecting air samples. The results of this sampling will help determine which elements of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration lead standard need to be followed. Investigators also recommended that surfaces contaminated with lead or illicit drugs be properly cleaned. Change-out schedules for the air filters in the local exhaust ventilation systems and vacuum cleaners should be established and followed. HHE Program investigators recommended that employees wear nitrile gloves when cleaning guns, handling spent cartridge cases, and when working in the firing range or parking garage. Even when gloves are worn, hands should be cleaned with soap and water or with lead-decontamination wipes after firing weapons or doing other work that could result in exposure to lead. Investigators also recommended the use of nitrile gloves when employees handle illicit drug evidence or perform criminology procedures.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Acrylates Air Pollution, Indoor Dust Ear Engineering Environmental Health Environmental Monitoring Environmental Pollution Hazardous Substances Law Enforcement Lead Manufacturing And Industrial Facilities Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Personal Protective Equipment Safety Sense Organs Surveys And Questionnaires Ventilation Workplace

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• Keywords:
  Criminology Procedures Cyanoacrylate Fuming Drugs Employee-exposure Environmental-contamination Equipment-design Evidence Exhaust-ventilation Exposure-assessment Fingerprint Dusting Firing Range Gloves Hazardous-materials Health-surveys Illicit Drugs Indoor-air-pollution Indoor-environmental-quality Indoor Environmental Quality Law-enforcement Law-enforcement-workers Lead Lead-absorption Lead-compounds Lead-dust Materials-handling Mold Noise OSHA Region 5 Personal-protective-equipment Police-officers Police Protection Property Room Standards Vacuum-cleaning-systems Ventilation-systems Work-environment Worker-health

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• Source:
  Cincinnati, OH: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, HETA 2012-0083-3189, 2013 Jul ; :1-27
• Series:
  Health Hazard Evaluation Reports (HHE)
• Subseries:
  Health Evaluation and Technical Assistance (HETA)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHHETA201200833189
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Ohio ; 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:
  34 pdf pages
• Contributor:
  Beaucham, Catherine C. ; Booher, Donald E. ; Brown, Stefanie M. ; Feldmann, Karl D. ; Galloway, Ellen ; Jung Ho Choi ; Winfree, Mary
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20043006
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2013-110075
• Citation:
  NIOSH [2013]. Health hazard evaluation report: evaluation of employee ; exposure to lead and other chemicals at a police department. By Fent ; KW, Gibbins J, Niemeier T. Cincinnati, OH: U.S. Department of Health and ; Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National ; Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, NIOSH HETA Report No. ; 2012-0083-3189,
• CAS Registry Number:
  Lead (CAS RN 7439-92-1) ; Methyl 2-cyanoacrylate (CAS RN 137-05-3)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2013
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  922120 - Police Protection - (NAICS)
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:a82f0cb8d084b3721157f69cb6118ca1687a2fe1f94aa2d744e7b91fd124b381b7ef6d403426ac6596a7e171a5d2170a7fb56a91c264e049ed689ee18bb8c9ad
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/172459/cdc_172459_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.17 MB ]