Health Hazard Evaluation Report: HETA-81-266-998: Bibb County Department of Family and Children's Services; Macon, Georgia

Details

• Personal Author:
  Salisbury, Stanley A.
• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Description:
  Air quality was studied, ventilation systems evaluated, medical questionnaires distributed, and sick leave records reviewed at the Bibb County Department of Family and Childrens Services (SIC-8321) in Macon, Georgia, on May 19, 1981. Unspecified individuals requested the evaluation on behalf of approximately 151 affected workers. Although there was no evidence of occupational exposure to toxic chemicals, health complaints and related symptoms were reported by 81 percent of the employees. Employees had also taken an average of 12.6 days of sick leave per person per year. The ventilation system evaluation revealed that the outside air dampers on all air conditioning units were fully closed, a configuration contrary to initial design specification. Ventilation fans were also set to shut off automatically when air conditioning units cycled off. The authors conclude that the lack of sufficient outside air and shutdown of air circulation were probably responsible for the reported symptoms and discomfort, and this problem was also exacerbated by the 37 percent ratio of smokers in the office. They recommend that the ventilation system be operated with the outside air dampers open, ventilation fans should be continuously operated, smoking within the office should be reduced, and a follow up reexamination of sick leave records should be undertaken in the future.
• Subjects:
  Dust Occupational Health Safety
• Series:
  Health Hazard Evaluation Reports (HHE)
• Subseries:
  Health Evaluation and Technical Assistance (HETA)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHHETA81266998
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Georgia ; OSHA Region 4
• 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
• Contributor:
  McKinley, Thomas W.
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00122591
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB82-187030
• Citation:
  Cincinnati, Ohio : U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, HETA 81-266-998, 1981 November ; 1-16
• Editor(s):
  Hickey, Marion
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1982
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  8321 - Individual and Family Services - (SIC)
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:72c7e24c646ec717afd695384d762f35fbc5c3d4488a6edec7066f5da08cdfd11586e2e1e7b21c06c58102fbfda8154394e5c41360033cb08f606706ba8744bd
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/173219/cdc_173219_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.25 MB ]