Cincinnati, OH: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, ECTB 170-13c, 2000 Apr; :1-35
NIOSH has been conducting research on ventilation controls to reduce furniture stripping exposures to methylene chloride. The goal of this study was to reduce furniture stripping exposures to methylene chloride. The goal of this study was to reduce exposures to methylene chloride below the current OSHA PEL of 25 ppm at Tri-County Furniture Stripping in Cincinnati, Ohio. Five surveys were completed at this facility. The second survey showed the highest exposures with a geometric mean a 334 ppm. Since the second survey, the ventilation system at the stripping tank was upgraded and cleaned for a final exhaust volume of 2720 cfm. Since the third survey, a local exhaust ventilation system for the rinsing area was installed with a total exhaust volume of 2140. Additional controls instituted during the fifth and final survey included upgrading the stripping ventilation, adding paraffin wax to the stripping solution, and discussing good work practices with the employee. The methylene chloride concentrations during the fifth survey were reduced to a geometric mean of 9 ppm with a 95% upper confidence limit of 13 ppm. This final survey showed that the methylene chloride levels have been reduced to below the new OSHA PEL of 25 ppm. The important engineering and administrative controls that led to reducing exposures were the following: Increasing the stripping tank local exhaust ventilation to 2700 cfm, increasing the rinsing area local exhaust ventilation to 21000cfm, opening all doors to the facility to allow for plentiful make-up air, adding paraffin wax to the stripping solution and bringing up the level of the solution in the stripping tank, and training the employee in good work practices. The cost of the ventilation system and the make-up system is projected to be $15,720, with a yearly operating cost of $1000. For the facility in this study, an additional $5200 would need to be spent to upgrade their gas line for installation of the make-up air unit.
Links with this icon indicate that you are leaving the CDC website.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cannot attest to the accuracy of a non-federal website.
Linking to a non-federal website does not constitute an endorsement by CDC or any of its employees of the sponsors or the information and products presented on the website.
You will be subject to the destination website's privacy policy when you follow the link.
CDC is not responsible for Section 508 compliance (accessibility) on other federal or private website.
For more information on CDC's web notification policies, see Website Disclaimers.
CDC.gov Privacy Settings
We take your privacy seriously. You can review and change the way we collect information below.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.
Cookies used to make website functionality more relevant to you. These cookies perform functions like remembering presentation options or choices and, in some cases, delivery of web content that based on self-identified area of interests.
Cookies used to track the effectiveness of CDC public health campaigns through clickthrough data.
Cookies used to enable you to share pages and content that you find interesting on CDC.gov through third party social networking and other websites. These cookies may also be used for advertising purposes by these third parties.
Thank you for taking the time to confirm your preferences. If you need to go back and make any changes, you can always do so by going to our Privacy Policy page.