Industrial Hygiene Walk-Though Survey Report on Styrene Exposure at the Bertram Yacht Company, Miami, Florida.

Crandall-MS

NIOSH 1979 Oct:7 pages

00094257

A preliminary walk-through industrial hygiene survey was conducted in the Bertram Yachts Facility (SIC-3732), where fiberglass reinforced plastic (FRP) boats are manufactured, to determine if this factory should be included in an industrial hygiene study of workers exposed to styrene (100425) and acetone (67641). The OSHA standard for styrene exposure is 100 parts per million (ppm) for an 8 hour time weighted average (TWA) exposure, and 200ppm ceiling exposure. The OSHA TWA standard for acetone is 1,000ppm. The highest styrene concentration measured at the facility was 33.1ppm in the deck lamination area. Styrene concentrations elsewhere in the building ranged from less than 1.0 to 28.0ppm. Acetone concentrations ranged from less than 1.0 to 5.5 ppm. The company employed 825 workers; 615 were in the production area. The company provides mandatory preemployment medical examinations, and maintains a physician on call during work shifts. Employees are trained in safety and first-aid procedures. Ventilation systems are adequate, and work practices and use of protective clothing and respiratory equipment effectively reduced exposures. The authors recommend that this facility be included in the industrial hygiene study of workers exposed to styrene.

NIOSH-Author; NIOSH-Survey; Field-Study; IWS; Region-4; Boat-building-and-repairing; Synthetic-resins; Mortality-data; Exposure-limits; Industrial-hygiene; Air-sampling; Sampling-methods; Chemical-exposure; Shipyard-workers;

100-42-5; 67-64-1;

19791011

1980

DSHEFS;

3732;

Division of Surveillance, Hazard Evaluations and Field Studies, NIOSH, Cincinnati, Ohio, 7 pages, 1 reference

OH;