Health Hazard Evaluation Determination Report No. 77-107-485: Mesta Machine Company: West Homestead, Pennsylvania

Details

• Personal Author:
  Kominsky, John R. ; Wilcox, Thomas G.
• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Description:
  An investigation has been conducted to evaluate potential hazards from a cadmium babbitting operation in the erection department involved in the manufacture of equipment for steel rolling mills (SIC-3341). The babbitting section of the erecting department performs centrifugal casting of linings of oil bearings and other types of bearings. The two types of babbitt metals and their alloying elements include: 1) cadmium (7440439) base containing 97.5% cadmium and 1.5% lead (7439921), and 2) tin (7440315) base containing 89% tin, 3.5% copper (7440508), 7.5% antimony (7440360) and .25% lead. Prior to the investigation, melting of the cadmium base babbitt ceased. Thus, no environmental evaluation was conducted. The medical evaluation consisted of questionnaires administered to each worker, a directed physical examination, pulmonary function test, and blood and urine analyses. It has been determined that a hazard to the health of workers exposed to cadmium may have existed prior to the cessation of cadmium bearing babbitting operations. Elevated blood and/or urine cadmium levels (indicative of possible excessive cadmium exposure) were found in 5 out of 11 potentially exposed workers tested. In addition, two workers who showed elevated blood and urine cadmium concentrations had symptoms compatible with chronic cadmium toxicity. In addition, these two workers also suffered symptoms compatible with acute cadmium inhalation poisoning during an episode in April 1977, when cadmium ingots were mistaken for noncadmium containing babbitt ingots and were melted and poured into bearings without the respiratory precaution normally taken when working with cadmium. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Air Pollutants, Occupational Air Pollution, Indoor Blood Cadmium Environmental Monitoring Hematologic Tests Metals, Heavy Metal Workers Occupational Health Poisoning Safety Urine Ventilation

  More +
• Keywords:
  Air-contamination Air-quality-measurement Air-sampling Bearings Blood-sampling Cadmium-poisoning Coatings Hazard-Confirmed Heavy-metals HHE-77-107-485 Industrial-hygiene NIOSH-Author NIOSH-Health-Hazard-Evaluation Occupational-health OSHA Region 3 Steel-industry Steelworkers Urinalysis Urine Cadmium

  More +
• Series:
  Health Hazard Evaluation Reports (HHE)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHHHE77107485
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Pennsylvania ; West Homestead (PA) ; OSHA Region 3
• 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:
  13 pdf pages
• Contributor:
  Flesch, Jerome P. ; Dove, Patricia
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00080150
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB82-197419
• 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 77-107-485, 1978 Apr ; :1-13
• CAS Registry Number:
  Cadmium (CAS RN 7440-43-9) ; Lead (CAS RN 7439-92-1) ; Tin (CAS RN 7440-31-5) ; Copper (CAS RN 7440-50-8) ; Antimony (CAS RN 7440-36-0)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1978
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  3341 - Secondary nonferrous metals - (SIC)
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:a45a59b5eb0a5ca116b6b579fccdf77b5d4dc15ed79487e72203e923eae51d3395fc13c128049b83ff5f639cb1a07e7b338778a7decbdeac906a44862ccc4d34
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/173826/cdc_173826_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.82 MB ]