Exposures to quartz, diesel, dust, and welding fumes during heavy and highway construction

Details

• Personal Author:
  Bello D ; Kalil A ; Virji, M. Abbas ; Woskie SR
• Description:
  Personal samples for exposure to dust, diesel exhaust, quartz, and welding fume were collected on heavy and highway construction workers. The respirable, thoracic, and inhalable fractions of dust and quartz exposures were estimated from 260 personal impactor samples. Respirable quartz exposures exceeded the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) recommended exposure limit (REL) in 7-31% of cases for the trades sampled. More than 50% of the samples in the installation of drop ceilings and wall tiles and concrete finish operations exceeded the NIOSH REL for quartz. Thoracic exposures to quartz and dust exceeded respirable exposures by a factor of 4.5 and 2.8, respectively. Inhalable exposures to quartz and dust exceeded respirable exposures by a factor of 25.6 and 9.3, respectively. These findings are important due to the identification of quartz as a carcinogen by the National Toxicology Program and the International Agency for Research on Cancer. Fourteen percent of the personal samples for EC (n=261), collected as a marker for diesel exhaust, exceeded the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) threshold limit value (TLV(R)) for diesel exhaust. Seventeen of the 22 (77%) samples taken during a partially enclosed welding operation reached or exceeded the ACGIH TLV of 5 mg/m3 for welding fume. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Air Pollutants, Occupational Carcinogens Construction Industry Construction Materials Dust Environmental Monitoring Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Quartz Safety Silicon Dioxide Vehicle Emissions Welding

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• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Construction Breathing-zone Construction Construction-industry Construction-materials Construction-workers Diesel-emissions Diesel-exhausts Diesel Exhaust Dusts Employee-exposure Exposure-assessment Exposure-levels Exposure-limits Fumes Permissible-concentration-limits Quartz Quartz-dust Respirable-dust Road-construction Road-surfacing Sampling Silica Silica-dusts Size-selective Sampling Thorax Threshold-limit-values Welders

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• ISSN:
  0002-8894
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  District of Columbia ; Massachusetts ; OSHA Region 1 ; OSHA Region 3
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  447-457
• Volume:
  63
• Issue:
  4
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20041070
• Citation:
  Am Ind Hyg Assoc J 2002 Jul/Aug; 63(4):447-457
• Contact Point Address:
  Susan R. Woskie, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Construction Occupational Health Project, Department of Work Environment, One University Avenue, Lowell, MA 01854
• CAS Registry Number:
  Quartz (SiO2) (CAS RN 14808-60-7) ; Silica (CAS RN 7631-86-9)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2002
• NORA Priority Area:
  Construction
• Performing Organization:
  The Center to Protect Workers' Rights
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  19990930
• Source Full Name:
  American Industrial Hygiene Association Journal
• End Date:
  20050630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:1a534fc6e73f4ea9c7faf464e47e9fa4992833aa28f18b94226e0b485eabf48edbab886a4236bd4504c74212b039fa2436d59539b7879d9bfd587f31b42dda23
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/193728/cdc_193728_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 187.96 KB ]