Health Hazard Evaluation Determination Report No. 77-43-500: Shell Oil Refinery: Deer Park, Texas

Details

• Personal Author:
  Hollett, Bruce A. ; Wisseman, Charles L. ; Xintaras, Charles
• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Description:
  Medical surveys and environmental sampling were conducted to evaluate the association between methyl-ethyl-ketone (78933) (MEK) and toluene (108883) exposure and the incidence of peripheral neuropathy in workers in the Lube B Dewaxing Unit at the Shell Oil Refinery (SIC-2911) in Deer Park, Texas. The evaluation was requested by an authorized employee representative of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers International Union, Local 4-367, and by the corporate medical director of Shell on behalf of an unspecified number of affected employees. Neuropathies were mild and were manifested more by discomfort than by functional impairment. Industrial hygiene data from OSHA and Shell did not reveal the presence of any known cause of peripheral neuropathies. MEK and toluene were generally found at concentrations below 20 parts per million. The authors conclude that a possible excess of mild peripheral neuropathy exists among employees in the Lube B Dewaxing Unit, that the cause of the observed neuropathies cannot be determined, that the prevalence of overt diabetes mellitus and elevated serum triglyceride is not excessive and that the prevalence of subclinical diabetes may be excessive. They recommend that exposure to MEK and toluene be minimized in view of their possible role in causing neuropathy. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Air Pollutants, Occupational Butanones Environmental Exposure Environmental Monitoring Labor Unions Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Petroleum Safety Staff Development Toluene

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• Keywords:
  Air-contaminants Air-sampling Chemical-exposure Clinical-symptoms Control-methods Hazard-Unconfirmed HHE-77-43-500 High-Melting-Point Hydrocarbons Humans MEK NIOSH-Author NIOSH-Health-Hazard-Evaluation Occupational-health-programs OSHA Region 6 Petroleum-refining Petroleummethyl Ethyl Ketone Region 6 Solvent-Extraction Unions

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• Series:
  Health Hazard Evaluation Reports (HHE)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHHHE7743500
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Texas ; Deer Park (TX) ; OSHA Region 6
• 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:
  67 pdf pages
• Contributor:
  Burg, Jeanne R. ; Lowe, Dorothy
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00099472
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB80-212038
• 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 77-43-500, 1978 Jun ; :1-67
• CAS Registry Number:
  Methyl ethyl ketone (CAS RN 78-93-3) ; Toluene (CAS RN 108-88-3)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1978
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  2911 - Petroleum refining - (SIC)
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:c680dff6ecf6a1791ab2b3cecb899e7d52473638d3721542d8d23410f67a0aa6acef9657a58b363aac27761f6570b56df937048f5bbca3fd87e6ca130e09f934
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/173625/cdc_173625_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 12.70 MB ]