{"title":"Setting occupational exposure limits for sensory irritants: the approach in the European Union.","authors":"M. Meldrum","doi":"10.1080/15298660108984682","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15298660108984682","url":null,"abstract":"Beginning in 1990, the European Commission initiated a program to establish European Union (EU)-wide occupational exposure limits (OELs). As in the United States and other countries, a panel of experts known as the Scientific Committee on Occupational Exposure Limits (SCOEL) was identified and brought together to identify the proper values. This article describes the approach used by SCOEL to identify appropriate values for sensory irritants. The EU panel believes that irritant effects in the eyes and respiratory tract can produce symptoms that range from trivial to serious, and that responses to irritants may be viewed as belonging to a continuum. One of the interesting differences between the approach used by the ACGIH TLV committee and the SCOEL is the use of five grades of irritation to evaluate this class of chemicals. For purposes of setting an OEL, the SCOEL makes no distinction between irritation or nuisance and related somatic effects such as headache. How the committee established an OEL for ethyl acetate is offered as an illustrative example.","PeriodicalId":7449,"journal":{"name":"AIHAJ : a journal for the science of occupational and environmental health and safety","volume":"82 1","pages":"730-2"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2001-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86256476","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
David W. Hiipakka, Kevin. S. Dyrdahl, Miguel Garcia Cardenas
{"title":"Successful reduction of morticians' exposure to formaldehyde during embalming procedures.","authors":"David W. Hiipakka, Kevin. S. Dyrdahl, Miguel Garcia Cardenas","doi":"10.1080/15298660108984676","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15298660108984676","url":null,"abstract":"A case study of the effectiveness of upgraded ventilation engineering controls in a military mortuary facility was performed. Worst-case mortician formaldehyde exposures generated during the use of highly concentrated embalming fluid (required to meet a 2-week preservation standard for overseas case processing and return of the deceased to the continental United States) were documented. A detailed exposure evaluation via consecutive short-term exposure limit (STEL) samples facilitated characterization of the hazard potential for each distinct phase of the embalming process. After baseline screening with 3M passive formaldehyde dosimeters, a total of 145 personal and area STEL sorbent tube samples were collected during six embalming cases between 1994 and 1998. Prior to the installation of local exhaust ventilation controls, personal time-weighted average (TWA) exposure values during embalming activities were 3.19-7.69 ppm for a mean of 4.80 ppm (calculated 8-hour TWA exposures for mortician workshifts were 1.32-2.86 ppm, mean 1.93 ppm). Initial STEL exposures ranged from a low of 0.14 during preembalming body preparation to 20.89 ppm during aspiration of arterial fluids (mean = 4.16 ppm). Embalming room general area samples revealed a mean concentration of 0.76 ppm. With ventilation upgrades installed in 1997, calculated personal 8-hour TWA exposure values during embalming procedures were reduced. STEL exposures decreased to between 0.11 to 3.44 ppm (mean of 0.55 ppm); embalming room general area sample concentrations decreased to a mean of 0.089 ppm. Because occasional 15-min peak exposures continued to exceed the 2.0 ppm Occupational Safety and Health Administration STEL during tasks involving large volumes of embalming fluid or direct contact with paraformaldehyde preservative powders, general room ventilation was further upgraded to 25 room air changes per hour.","PeriodicalId":7449,"journal":{"name":"AIHAJ : a journal for the science of occupational and environmental health and safety","volume":"69 1","pages":"689-96"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2001-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84151422","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Telephone communications with several commercial respirators.","authors":"A. Johnson, W. Scott, K. Coyne, F. Koh, J. Rebar","doi":"10.1080/15298660108984675","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15298660108984675","url":null,"abstract":"Previous work showed that telephone communications while wearing military respirators degraded both word comprehension and recognition speed. In addition, electronic amplification of the speech diaphragm signal had shown no advantage to the extra hardware. This experiment was performed to test effects of different configurations of commercially available respirators on telephone communications accuracy and speed. Twelve pairs of subjects were separated into different rooms and communicated by telephone. Modified rhyme-test words were presented by computer to the speaker, who transmitted the word by telephone to the listener. During the first replication, subjects were given no instruction about telephone communications procedure. During the second replication subjects followed a communications protocol that instructed them when to move the telephone handset from their ears to their mouths. Results showed that the protocol uniformly improved communications accuracy without incurring any extra time penalty. Word comprehension was still twice as fast without a respirator as with a respirator. Accuracy with the protocol nearly equaled the no respirator control value for most respirators tested.","PeriodicalId":7449,"journal":{"name":"AIHAJ : a journal for the science of occupational and environmental health and safety","volume":"270 1","pages":"685-8"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2001-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77819764","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Replotting data for chronic beryllium disease.","authors":"B. Cohen","doi":"10.1080/15298660108984669","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15298660108984669","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":7449,"journal":{"name":"AIHAJ : a journal for the science of occupational and environmental health and safety","volume":"152 1 1","pages":"667"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2001-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78433629","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Interchangeability of gas detection tubes and hand pumps.","authors":"D. Hirsh","doi":"10.1080/15298660108984670","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15298660108984670","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":7449,"journal":{"name":"AIHAJ : a journal for the science of occupational and environmental health and safety","volume":"10 1","pages":"667-8"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2001-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82120334","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
J. Brodeur, A. Vyskočil, R. Tardif, G. Perrault, D. Drolet, G. Truchon, F. Lemay
{"title":"Adjustment of permissible exposure values to unusual work schedules.","authors":"J. Brodeur, A. Vyskočil, R. Tardif, G. Perrault, D. Drolet, G. Truchon, F. Lemay","doi":"10.1080/15298660108984657","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15298660108984657","url":null,"abstract":"Research activities sought development of a method to adjust exposure limits for 694 substances for unusual work schedules. A consensus was established on the basic toxicological principle for adjustment; criteria for adjustment were selected by a panel of scientists coordinated by a committee of international experts and supported by toxicokinetic modeling; and a group of toxicologists attributed primary health effects and related adjustment category to each substance. A consensus among scientists and employers' and workers' representatives was established on the protocol of the application, in the field, of the adjusted exposure limits. The guiding toxicological principle for adjusting exposure standards to unusual work schedules is to guarantee an equivalent degree of protection for workers with unusual schedules as for workers with a conventional schedule of 8 hours per day, 5 days per week. The process of the adjustment is inspired from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration logic for attribution of primary health effects and adjustment categories ranging from no adjustment to daily or weekly adjustments. The adjusted exposure limits are calculated according to Haber's rule. Decisions on attribution of adjustment categories for the following toxicological effects were reached: respiratory sensitizers (asthma); skin sensitizers; tissue irritants versus tissue toxicants; methemoglobinenia-causing agents; cholinesterase inhibitors; and reproductive system toxicants and teratogens. A simple procedure is presented to facilitate the calculation, application, and interpretation of the adjusted exposure limits.","PeriodicalId":7449,"journal":{"name":"AIHAJ : a journal for the science of occupational and environmental health and safety","volume":"246 1","pages":"584-94"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2001-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76884386","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Safety and health program assessment in relation to the number and type of safety and health violations.","authors":"F. Akbar-khanzadeh, O. Wagner","doi":"10.1080/15298660108984659","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15298660108984659","url":null,"abstract":"The Ohio Bureau of Employment Services (OBES), through the Occupational Safety and Health Administration On-Site Consultation Program, provides safety and health (S&H) consultation services to small high-hazard companies. During a full-service consultation, the S&H Program Assessment Worksheet (Form 33) is completed and the S&H violations are determined. Form 33 consists of 25 indicators, each with a score of 0 (lowest) to 4 (highest) to evaluate a portion of the S&H program. To examine the hypothesis that employers with a higher score on their S&H program would have fewer S&H violations, a study collected and analyzed data from records maintained in the archives of OBES. Of 534 full-service site visits performed between June 1995 and December 1996, 107 case files were complete and appropriate for this study. Data analysis revealed that the number of serious violations (SV) and the number of regulatory violations (RV) were significantly (p < 0.01) correlated to all 25 indicators on the S&H Program Assessment Worksheet, whereas the number of other-than-serious violations (OSV) were significantly (p < 0.05) correlated to only 15 indicators. The best predictors of the number of SV were the indicators of Timely Hazard Control and Emergency Planning and Preparation; best predictors of RV were the indicators of Timely Hazard Control and Accountability; and best predictors of OSV were the indicators of Hazard Identification (Self-Inspection) and Emergency Planning and Preparation (Equipment). Employers who scored higher on the indicators of the quality of their S&H programs had fewer S&H violations, and the indicators of Hazard Identification, Timely Hazard Control, and Emergency Planning and Preparation showed the highest influence in reducing violations.","PeriodicalId":7449,"journal":{"name":"AIHAJ : a journal for the science of occupational and environmental health and safety","volume":"13 1","pages":"605-10"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2001-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84242277","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
R. Huang, S. Sir, Y. K. Chen, W. Yeh, C. W. Chen, C. C. Chen
{"title":"Capture envelopes of rectangular hoods in cross drafts.","authors":"R. Huang, S. Sir, Y. K. Chen, W. Yeh, C. W. Chen, C. C. Chen","doi":"10.1080/15298660108984655","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15298660108984655","url":null,"abstract":"The suction fields of the rectangular hoods of various aspect ratios varying from 0.1 to 10 that are subject to the influence of cross drafts were experimentally studied in an apparatus consisting of a hood model/wind tunnel assembly. The velocity field on the symmetry plane was measured with a two-component laser Doppler anemometer. Being under the influence of cross draft, the suction field presents a characteristic capture envelope, which is described by a dividing streamline. The characteristics of the capture envelope were found to be determined by the cross-draft to hood-suction velocity ratio R and the hood-opening aspect ratio AR. The flow characteristics of the hoods with aspect ratios less than unity were dramatically different from those with aspect ratios greater than one. If areas of the hood openings had the same values, the hydraulic-diameter normalized characteristic length scales of the capture zone of the square hood were as same as those of the circular hood. When the diameter of a circular hood was equal to the width of a square hood, the physical dimensions of the capture zones created by these two hoods coincided with each other.","PeriodicalId":7449,"journal":{"name":"AIHAJ : a journal for the science of occupational and environmental health and safety","volume":"7 1","pages":"563-72"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2001-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83604403","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
S. Trakumas, K. Willeke, T. Reponen, S. Grinshpun, W. Friedman
{"title":"Comparison of filter bag, cyclonic, and wet dust collection methods in vacuum cleaners.","authors":"S. Trakumas, K. Willeke, T. Reponen, S. Grinshpun, W. Friedman","doi":"10.1080/15298660108984656","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15298660108984656","url":null,"abstract":"In this study, methods were developed for comparative evaluation of three primary dust collection methods employed in vacuum cleaners: filter bag, cyclonic, and wet primary dust collection. The dry collectors were evaluated with KCl test aerosols that are commonly used in filter testing. However, these aerosols cannot be used for evaluating wet collectors due to their hygroscopicity. Therefore, the wet collectors were evaluated with nonhygroscopic test particles. Both types of test aerosol indicated similar collection efficiencies in tests with dry collectors. The data show that high initial collection efficiency can be achieved by any one of the three dust collection methods: up to 50% for 0.35 microm particles, and close to 100% for 1.0 microm and larger particles. The degree of dependence of the initial collection efficiency on airflow rate was strongly related to the type and manufacturing of the primary dust collector. Collection efficiency decreased most with decreasing flow rate for the tested wet collectors. The tested cyclonic and wet collectors showed high reentrainment of already collected dust particles. After the filter bag collectors had been loaded with test dust, they also reemitted particles. The degree of reentrainment from filter bags depends on the particulate load and the type of filter material used. Thus, the overall particle emissions performance of a vacuum cleaner depends not only on the dust collection efficiency of the primary collector and other filtration elements employed, but also on the degree of reentrainment of already collected particles.","PeriodicalId":7449,"journal":{"name":"AIHAJ : a journal for the science of occupational and environmental health and safety","volume":"2 1","pages":"573-83"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2001-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87560121","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Is acculturation related to use of hearing protection?","authors":"P. Rabinowitz, R. Duran","doi":"10.1080/15298660108984660","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15298660108984660","url":null,"abstract":"Noise-exposed employees with limited English skills may pose a special challenge for hearing conservation programs. This pilot field study assessed knowledge, attitudes, and behavior regarding use of hearing protective devices in a largely Hispanic group of 88 workers exposed to industrial noise. Effectiveness of hearing protection was determined through field measurements of personal attenuation ratings. Individual scores on an acculturation scale (first language learned, language at home, degree of literacy in English, preferred language) demonstrated a correlation between a low degree of acculturation and low personal attenuation rating (R2= 0.49, p=0.0001). Low acculturation was also correlated with high-perceived barriers to use of hearing protection (p=0.006). Although neither self reports of self-efficacy nor perceived benefits of hearing protection correlated with personal attenuation rating, perceived barriers to hearing protector use was a significant predictor of hearing protector fit (p=0.05). These results indicate that less acculturated workers may be underutilizing hearing protection in the workplace partly due to perceived barriers to use of hearing protective devices. To be effective, hearing conservation training programs in work sites with an immigrant work force need to address language and cultural barriers to the use of hearing protection.","PeriodicalId":7449,"journal":{"name":"AIHAJ : a journal for the science of occupational and environmental health and safety","volume":"15 1","pages":"611-4"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2001-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73038397","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}