Health Hazards to Construction Workers During the Demolition of Two Tenement Buildings

Details

• Personal Author:
  Goldberg M ; Klitzman S ; O'Brien S ; Olmstead E
• Description:
  Industrial hygiene and safety evaluations and a health assessment of lead (7439-92-1) exposure were conducted during the demolition of two tenement buildings in the Bronx, New York. The tenement buildings were five and six stories, including the basement, which had been previously abandoned, and all windows and doors were sealed with cement block. Construction was prewar including wood floors and joists supported by perimeter brick walls. Blood lead screening was conducted twice on two workers. One had an initial reading of 16 micrograms/deciliter (microg/dl) which increased slightly by 2 microg/dl. The second worker had an initial reading of 30microg/dl which decreased by 6microg/dl. Airborne lead monitoring of site one showed an 8 hour time weighted average ranging from 0.003 mg/m3 to 0.011 mg/m3. At site two, the exposures ranged from 0.06 to 0.032 mg/m3. Total dust exposure for demolition workers ranged from 4.27 to 11.6 mg/m3. One respirable dust sample was taken at each location, 3.39 and 1.31 mg/m3. At the second site roofing material contained about 5 percent chrysotile (12001-29-5) asbestos. No respiratory protection was provided at either site and no hygiene facilities were available. No fall protection equipment or site security was provided. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Construction Industry Dust Epidemiology Hematologic Tests Lead Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Safety Workplace
• Keywords:
  Biological-monitoring Blood-analysis Demolition-industry Dust-exposure Lead-dust Occupational-exposure Occupational-health Safety-research Workplace-studies
• Series:
  Grant Final Reports
• Publisher:
  Center to Protect Workers' Rights
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Final Cooperative Agreement Report
• Place as Subject:
  District of Columbia ; New York ; OSHA Region 2 ; OSHA Region 3
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  OEP - Office of Extramural Programs
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-13
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00235373
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB97-151799
• Citation:
  Center to Protect Worker's Rights, Washington, D.C. 1994 Nov; :1-13
• CAS Registry Number:
  Chrysotile (CAS RN 12001-29-5) ; Lead (CAS RN 7439-92-1)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1995
• Performing Organization:
  Center to Protect Workers' Rights, Washington, DC
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  19900928
• Source Full Name:
  Center to Protect Worker's Rights, Washington, D.C.
• End Date:
  19961231
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:7411a15f36d9ba4aa5c97b36bac72388884aff0cb445de8ee31825c2a1a8c2f722e04ca88682a6c0e950ae1ab02e5b7f7c66194aa128a371753ed27f0adcb34a
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/217886/cdc_217886_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 858.59 KB ]