Details:

• Personal Author:
  Beamer, Bryan R. ; Crouch, Keith G. ; Hammond, Duane R.

  Beamer, Bryan R. ; Crouch, Keith G. ; Hammond, Duane R. Less -
• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Division of Applied Research and Technology
• Description:
  Researchers from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) conducted an evaluation of a redesign of the Ventilation/Filtration System (VFS) developed for the United States Postal Service (UPS) mail processing equipment-the Hand-Cull stations of the 010 Culling System. The VFS was developed and installed by a private contractor hired by the USPS to reduce the potential for employee exposure to harmful substances that could be contained in mail pieces processed by the equipment. NIOSH was asked to assist the USPS in evaluating controls for this and other mail processing equipment after the 2001 terrorist attacks that used the mail as a delivery system for anthrax. Evaluations were based on air velocity measurements and smoke release observations. Both tests were made to evaluate contaminant capture efficiency of a redesign of the VFS at the Hand-Cull stations of the 010 Culling System. The redesign of the Hand-Cull stations was carried out not only to keep the curtain out of the workers' faces, but also to maximize the range of unimpeded motion. The following recommendation and conclusion were based on the results from this report. It is recommended that the USPS encourage its workers to work at the Hand-Cull stations with the curtains down in order to optimize the effectiveness of the local exhaust ventilation (LEV) to protect them from acts of bioterrorism. The performance of the VFS with the redesigned curtain is not appreciably different from the original configuration (114 fpm vs. 116 fpm).
• Subjects:
  [+]

  Air Movements Biological Warfare Agents Engineering Environmental Monitoring Filtration Occupational Health Safety Ventilation
• Keywords:
  [+]

  Air-flow Air-quality-monitoring Biological-weapons Control-technology Engineering-controls Equipment-design OSHA Region 3 Postal-employees Ventilation-equipment Ventilation-systems
• Series:
  Engineering and Physical Hazards Survey Reports
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHEPHB27922
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Name as Subject:
  United States. Postal Service
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Maryland ; Baltimore (MD) ; OSHA Region 3

  Maryland ; Baltimore (MD) ; OSHA Region 3 Less -
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DART - Division of Applied Research and Technology ; EPHB - Engineering and Physical Hazards Branch

  DART - Division of Applied Research and Technology ; EPHB - Engineering and Physical Hazards Branch Less -
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-10
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20027353
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2006-100413
• Citation:
  Cincinnati, OH: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, EPHB 279-22, 2005 Jun;:1-10;
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2005
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  4311 - U.S. Postal Service - (SIC)
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  [+]

  urn:sha-512:78a2ee346136b4b0fc9895d2d237a45f89090322f59b6b34e475dfca4639b8964020627a59c46ca5d399707c8950102ccc88d1a0ee4aa75fd55152092e0d2285
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/174926/cdc_174926_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF-506.93 KB]