Workplace exposures to the corrosion-inhibiting chemicals from a steam humidification system

Details

• Personal Author:
  Hills B ; Lushniak, Boris D. ; Sinks T
• Description:
  A variety of symptoms including nausea, vomiting, dizziness and irritation of the eye, nose and throat occurred in 70 of 84 assemblers in a Cincinnati, Ohio electrical components manufacturing facility on December 5, 1988. The employees had shortly before noted an odor which coincided with the introduction of steam for humidification which was derived from the facility boiler. A NIOSH investigation found that in mid September, two corrosion inhibiting chemicals, diethylaminoethanol (100378) (DEAE) and cyclohexylamine (108918) (CHA) had been added to the boiler at four times normal strength. During the next 2.5 months the boiler was idle. NIOSH has investigated three other incidents of illness related to exposure to boiler steam that contained corrosion inhibiting chemicals. In light of these findings, the authors conclude that the use of amine corrosion inhibiting chemicals in boiler steam to humidify occupied buildings should be discontinued. At least one major supplier of corrosion inhibiting chemicals recognized the potential health hazards of DEAE and in 1983 warned all of its customers against such use. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Air Pollutants, Occupational Amines Corrosion Inhalation Exposure Irritants Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Respiratory Tract Diseases Safety
• Keywords:
  Corrosion-inhibitors Inhalants NIOSH-Author Occupational-exposure Organic-vapors Respiratory-irritants Respiratory-system-disorders
• ISSN:
  1047-322X
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Ohio ; OSHA Region 5
• 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
• Volume:
  5
• Issue:
  10
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00205754
• Citation:
  Appl Occup Environ Hyg 1990 Oct; 5(10):672-673
• CAS Registry Number:
  Cyclohexylamine (CAS RN 108-91-8) ; Diethylethanolamine (CAS RN 100-37-8)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1991
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Source Full Name:
  Applied Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:81a32832251bcc41ab31f302b6107d0bddff1efd58d66bab4c23129414f95bc189d97c47adc718d3095ea2a2efdd00fa2bc77f0d6d1c868a062471730cff050c
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/205912/cdc_205912_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 396.21 KB ]