Health Hazard Evaluation Determination Report No. 78-80-521: Denver General Hospital: Denver, Colorado

Details

• Personal Author:
  Gunter, Bobby J.
• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Description:
  Environmental breathing zone samples were collected on June 17 and 18, 1978, to determine concentrations of halothane (151677), ethrane (13838169), and nitrous-oxide (10024972) in the operating rooms of Denver General Hospital (SIC-8062) in Denver, Colorado. The evaluation was requested by the Chief of Anesthesiology on behalf of approximately 70 affected employees. The NIOSH standard of 0.5 parts per million (ppm) was exceeded in one out of 20 samples for ethrane and in two of 20 samples for halothane. Nitrous-oxide concentrations exceeded the NIOSH recommended concentration of 25ppm in 6 of 65 samples. The author concludes that chemical concentrations were extremely low and did not pose an immediate danger to the health of the operating room personnel. The author recommends that concentrations be reduced to below NIOSH standards, that anesthetic equipment be checked and maintained on a regular basis and that operating rooms be monitored at least once a year to ensure that workers are not overexposed to waste anesthetic gases. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Anesthesia Enflurane Halothane Occupational Health Personal Protective Equipment Safety
• Keywords:
  Anesthetic Gases Anesthetics Ethrane Hazards-Unconfirmed HHE-78-80-521 Humans Medical-care-facilities NIOSH-Author NIOSH-Health-Hazard-Evaluation Nitrous Oxide Operating Rooms OSHA Region 8 Protective-equipment

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• Series:
  Health Hazard Evaluation Reports (HHE)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHHHE7880521
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Colorado ; Denver (CO) ; OSHA Region 8
• 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
• Contributor:
  Flesch, Jerome P. ; Geraci, Charles L. ; Schulenberg, Marilyn K.
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00099493
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB81-143620
• Citation:
  Cincinnati, OH: U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, HHE 78-80-521, 1978 Aug ; :1-11
• CAS Registry Number:
  Halothane (CAS RN 151-67-7) ; Ethrane (CAS RN 13838-16-9) ; Nitrous oxide (CAS RN 10024-97-2)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1978
• 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-512:7c84463eb1c48becfb3cc902fb19fca629f5bbdd82b8dcac69135b019ea23af2358a6b4e9d59b20d8f62eda0ba4bcb0f05eb74f89ed55181b4abc7f956162d94
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/173605/cdc_173605_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.10 MB ]