Abstract
On January 13, 1997, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) received a request from the safety director of the Woodward Governor Co., Fort Collins, Colorado, plant to conduct a health hazard evaluation (HHE). The request asked for assistance in documenting worker exposure to a wide variety of contaminants in production jobs including printed circuit board manufacturing, electrical product assembly, silk screening, spray painting, shipping, and mechanical production. The exposures of concern included isocyanates, inorganic acids, ammonia, solvents, lead, cutting fluids, and noise. Woodward Governor has many plants around the world involved in the manufacture of engine control devices. The Fort Collins, Colorado, plant employs about 800 workers involved in a wide range of production jobs. An environmental survey was conducted on March 10-12, 1997, which included monitoring for noise, metal working fluids, solvents (toluene, xylene, propylene glycol monomethyl ether (PGME), and formaldehyde), lead, ammonia, inorganic acids (hydrochloric, nitric, sulfuric, and phosphoric acids), and isocyanates (toluene diisoyanate (TDI) and methylene diisocyanate (MDI) monomers and oligomers, and total reactive isocyanate groups (TRIGs)).
Keywords
Health-hazard-evaluation; Manufacturing-plants; Exposure; Contaminants; Toxic-substances; Engine-control-devices; Methods; Solvents; Lead; Evaluation-criteria; Ammonia; Toluene; Xylene; Propylene-glycol-monomethyl-ether; Formaldehyde; Hydrochloric-acid; Nitric-acid; Sulfuric-acid; Phosphoric-acid; Toluene-diisocyanate;