Industrial hygiene assessment of new agents - III. Agent III - paraquat.

Details

• Personal Author:
  Todd, Alan S. ; Todd, Alan S.
• Description:
  Occupational exposure to paraquat (4685147) was evaluated at a production facility and at two aerial spraying field operations in California. Air sampling was conducted with personal monitoring pumps. The paraquat was desorbed with sulfuric-acid solution, filtered, and determined colorimetrically using sodium-dithionite. During ground spraying operations, personnel operating spray vehicles, truck drivers pumping paraquat, and mixing personnel at the spraying facility were monitored for paraquat concentrations. At the manufacturing facility, airborne concentrations of paraquat ranged from 0.00112 milligram per cubic meter (mg/m3) for paraquat supervisors to 0.00772mg/m3 for lab technicians. At the packaging facility, worker exposure ranged from less than 0.0015mg/m3 for weighing station personnel to 0.0250mg/m3 for line wipers. At an aerial application site, exposure ranged from 0.0038 to 0.0192mg/m3 among flaggers. At the ground application site, paraquat exposure ranged from less than 0.0036mg/m3 among blenders to 0.0205mg/m3 for a floater operator. The monitored exposures ranged from short tasks to up to 16 hour periods of continuous operation. Both at manufacturing and field use locations, workers were found to exhibit reasonable prudence in handling of concentrated and spray materials. Elaborate personal protective procedures were in evidence. The careful practices were not observed at ground and aerial spraying applications. The author concludes that among those studied, typical exposure risks for paraquat appear to be minimal and well below the OSHA standard of 0.5mg/m3 as an 8 hour time weighted average. However, workers with occupational exposure to paraquat should receive pulmonary function and blood and liver function tests. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Content Notes:
  in NTRL, no pdf
• Subjects:
  Environmental Exposure Environmental Pollution Hazardous Substances Manufacturing And Industrial Facilities Occupational Health Preceptorship Safety
• Keywords:
  NIOSH-Author; NIOSH-Contract; Contract-210-78-0060; NIOSH-Survey; Field-Study; Region-9; Environmental-exposure; Environmental-hazards; Health-hazards; Industrial-hygiene; Industrial-safety; Chemical-industry-workers; Exposure-levels
• Series:
  Industry Wide Field Studies   ; Industry Wide Field Studies  
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Contract
• Genre:
  Field Study ; Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  California ; Ohio ; OSHA Region 5 ; OSHA Region 9
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) ; National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DSHEFS - Division of Surveillance, Hazard Evaluations, and Field Studies ; DSHEFS - Division of Surveillance, Hazard Evaluations, and Field Studies
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health ; Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America ; North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-66
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00134740
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB88250519
• Citation:
  Cincinnati, OH: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, IWS 130-40, 1983 May; :1-66
• CAS Registry Number:
  Paraquat (CAS RN 4685-14-7) ; Paraquat (CAS RN 4685-14-7)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1983
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Source Full Name:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:7dc847c09aedf140bc731323e8446b4703641ae07d6ad9e7b7238120dab30b8f7dcaa9b938d34d035f87873a0fe7fec262d5d13dcaf290925445e82b6de3b57d
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/233601/cdc_233601_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 168.02 KB ]