Health Hazard Evaluation Report: HETA-83-136-1398: Social Security Administration; New Brunswick, New Jersey

Details

• Personal Author:
  Lucas, Cheryl
• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Description:
  Worker concerns over reproductive problems and possible residual health effects from gasoline contamination of the work area 1 year earlier were investigated on April 7 and 8, 1983 at the Social Security Administration Office (SIC-9441) in New Brunswick, New Jersey. The evaluation was requested by Local 2369, American Federation of Government Employees, on behalf of 34 female and 10 male workers. Questionnaires on health symptoms and reproductive history were administered to all 44 employees. No environmental sampling was conducted. Of the 40 pregnancies among the 34 women prior to and after coming to work at the office, 11 resulted in miscarriages. The five pregnancies that occurred since the earlier gasoline contamination ended in miscarriage. There were also two tubal pregnancies since the accident. None of the reported health symptoms could be associated with the presence of residual gasoline vapors. The author concludes that the rate of miscarriage is high among these workers, especially in the last year since the gasoline contamination. Due to the small sample size, and the lack of available evidence linking gasoline exposure to miscarriage, this high rate probably is due to chance. No hazard exists from residual gasoline vapors. The author recommends proper design of the lighting and ventilation systems when the office moves to a new building.
• Subjects:
  Explosions Fuel Oils Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Administration Of Social And Manpower Programs Exhaust-systems Explosive-atmospheres Fuels Gasoline Vapors Hazards-Unconfirmed HETA-83-136-1398 NIOSH-Author NIOSH-Health-Hazard-Evaluation NIOSH-Technical-Assistance-Report OSHA Region 7 Spontaneous Abortion Storage-containers

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• Series:
  Health Hazard Evaluation Reports (HHE)
• Subseries:
  Health Evaluation and Technical Assistance (HETA)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHHETA831361398
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  New Jersey ; OSHA Region 2
• 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:
  11 pdf pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00137708
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB85-181246
• 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 83-136-1398, 1983 Dec ; :1-9
• Editor(s):
  Pasley, Gloria
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1984
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  9441 - Administration of social & manpower programs - (SIC)
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:92d10d46230ab58b1841e468e6542f261aeed8e89a2ca6c368b4805cb16f63a44eafb931a95eaf807e5d9024c0867d92dcc01f68e7936f470c45777bcb55b841
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/172813/cdc_172813_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 4.07 MB ]