Health Hazard Evaluation Report: HETA-79-119-1068: The Evening News; Southbridge, Massachusetts

Details

• Personal Author:
  Hollett, Bruce A.
• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Description:
  The management of the Evening News (SIC-2710), Southbridge, Massachusetts requested a study to identify any potential problems requiring controls in a new facility or existing problems in the present facility. Sixty-five production workers are employed on site. The study was performed between January 28 and 31, 1980. The analysis of environmental data indicated no hazardous exposures to quinone, hydroquinone, hydrocarbons, hydrogen-cyanide, formaldehyde, or acetic-acid. Noise levels ranged between 88 and 95 decibels during various operations in the press room only. OSHA noise criteria is 90 decibels for an 8-hour time weighted average exposure. Fluoranthene in the black ink samples ranged from 0.03 to of 0.2 to 0.21 milligrams per gram. NIOSH recommends keeping exposures to airborne polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PNAs) as low as feasible. The author concludes that there was no health hazard from overexposure to airborne contaminants during the study. It is recommended that airborne PNA exposures be monitored and controlled. Control by substitution of a PNA free ink would be most effective, and engineering controls would be second best. Hearing conservation program improvements are also recommended.
• Subjects:
  Ear Environmental Monitoring Formaldehyde Hydroquinones Ink Noise Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Printing Safety Sense Organs Ventilation

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• Keywords:
  Acetic Acid Air-sampling Compositing Employee-exposure Fluoranthene Hazards-Unconfirmed Hydrogen Cyanide Hydroquinone Ink Mist Mailroom News Paper Printing NIOSH-Author NIOSH-Health-Hazard-Evaluation NIOSH-Technical-Assistance-Report Noise-exposure Offset Printing OSHA Region 1 Photographic Processing Plates PNA Polynuclear Aromatic Hydrocarbons Presses Printing-industry Printing-inks Publishing-and-printing Pyrene Quinone

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• Series:
  Health Hazard Evaluation Reports (HHE)
• Subseries:
  Health Evaluation and Technical Assistance (HETA)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHHETA791191068
• 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:
  DSHEFS - Division of Surveillance, Hazard Evaluations, and Field Studies
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  24 pdf pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00129621
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB83-199422
• 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 79-119-1068, 1982 Mar ; :1-21
• Editor(s):
  McDonald, Debra A.
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1982
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  271 - Newspapers - (SIC)
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:075c757b8dc3a58103099f81b8249b648c15791b8c947303c1da78632f4204755e091474c109f080d15fda4baee7f1181fb06909bd7a1ff3e129191df2ef0796
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/172989/cdc_172989_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 6.31 MB ]