Health Hazard Evaluation Report: HETA-83-217-1425: Medical College of Pennsylvania; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Details

• Personal Author:
  Lewis, Frank A. ; Parrish, Gib
• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Description:
  Personal air samples were analyzed for ethylene-oxide (75218) (EO) in the respiratory therapy section of the Medical College of Pennsylvania (SIC-8062), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania during May and June of 1983. The evaluation was requested by the National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees because of concern over spontaneous abortions and menstrual irregularities experienced by employees in the therapy section. EO was used in a gas sterilizer located in the section. All 15 employees were interviewed and reproductive histories were taken. No detectable concentrations of EO were found. Recent improvements had been made in the ventilation in the vicinity of the sterilizer. One of the 15 employees had experienced the spontaneous abortions during her term of employment in the section. None of the others experienced any adverse reproductive outcome that could be connected with work in the section. The authors note that it is not possible to determine if the spontaneous abortions were associated with EO exposure. They conclude that there have been no adverse reproductive outcomes related to EO exposure. Further efforts to improve the ventilation of the EO sterilizer are recommended.
• Subjects:
  Air Pollutants, Occupational Air Pollution, Indoor Health Care Facilities Workforce And Services Health Personnel Hospitals Occupational Health Safety Urogenital System
• Keywords:
  Air-contamination EtG General Medical And Surgical Hospitals Hazards-Unconfirmed Health-care-facilities Health-care-personnel HETA-83-217-1425 Hospital Workers Miscarriages NIOSH-Author NIOSH-Health-Hazard-Evaluation NIOSH-Technical-Assistance-Report OSHA Region 3 Reproductive-effects Reproductive Health Effects Respiratory Therapists Spontaneous Abortions

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• Series:
  Health Hazard Evaluation Reports (HHE)
• Subseries:
  Health Evaluation and Technical Assistance (HETA)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHHETA832171425
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Pennsylvania ; OSHA Region 3
• 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:
  16 pdf pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00149679
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB85-179240
• 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 83-217-1425, 1984 Feb ; :1-14
• CAS Registry Number:
  Ethylene oxide (CAS RN 75-21-8)
• Editor(s):
  Tomassini, Mary
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1984
• 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-512:90204ffae73411714861653ad1ae595cca94fed5da19285fba80cb5eefa5f2213834660e4afcd54bb92bc4358235bc6d8d49be3ee51134832a91f7924e23ebdb
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/172678/cdc_172678_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 3.41 MB ]