Health Hazard Evaluation Report: HETA-84-033-1576: Airco Carbon; St. Marys, Pennsylvania

Details

• Personal Author:
  Hartle, Richard W. ; Morawetz, John S.
• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Description:
  Environmental and breathing zone samples were analyzed for polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), total particulates, and respirable free silica (7631869) at the Airco Carbon Company (SIC- 3624), Saint Marys, Pennsylvania in January 1984. The evaluation was requested confidentially because of concern over exposures to soot, coal tar pitch volatiles, and sand in the car bottom and sagger bake operations. Forty-three employees were interviewed. Two of 19 total particulate samples exceeded the OSHA standard of 15 milligrams per cubic meter (mg/m3), 17.3 and 32.7mg/m3. Benzene soluble fractions ranged from 0.5 to 5.0mg/m3. The OSHA standard for benzene soluble fractions is 0.2mg/m3. Two of seven samples of silica were above the limit of detection, 0.09 and 0.06mg/m3. In bulk samples, the benzene soluble fractions ranged from 0.44 to 860mg/gram and the PAH content from 0 to 26,124 micrograms per gram. Employees working in the bake areas reported a significant excess incidence of symptoms such as skin, nose and eye irritation, cough, sore or dry throat, chest tightness, and breathing difficulty. The authors conclude that a health hazard exists at the facility. Recommendations include enclosing vehicles used in moving electrodes, cleaning up spilled dust, and controlling fumes emitted from the sagger kilns.
• Subjects:
  Air Pollutants, Occupational Air Pollution, Indoor Electricity Environmental Exposure Environmental Pollution Hydrocarbons Occupational Health Particulate Matter Safety Silicon Dioxide
• Keywords:
  Air-contamination Breathing-zone Carbon And Graphite Products Coal-Tar Pitch Volatiles Electrical-industry Environmental-hazards Graphite Electrode Hazards-Confirmed HETA-84-033-1576 NIOSH-Author NIOSH-Health-Hazard-Evaluation NIOSH-Technical-Assistance-Report OSHA Region 3 Particulates Physiological-response Polynuclear-aromatic-hydrocarbons Polynuclear Aromatic Compounds Silica X-Ray

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• Series:
  Health Hazard Evaluation Reports (HHE)
• Subseries:
  Health Evaluation and Technical Assistance (HETA)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHHETA840331576
• 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:
  22 pdf pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00146914
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB86-192721
• 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 84-033-1576, 1985 Sep ; :1-22
• CAS Registry Number:
  Silica (CAS RN 7631-86-9)
• Editor(s):
  Conway, Kathy
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1985
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  3624 - Carbon and graphite products - (SIC)
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:27ed4188a18c2e7123fdab0315315f5899fb7338200552ddcdc315af446d6847e3e117d424b30713c71df45a5228877539c18a07d0f9993ec379b7696d2d35d8
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/172709/cdc_172709_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 4.81 MB ]