The Use of Work Zones to Characterize Formaldehyde Exposures in a Particleboard Manufacturing Facility
Public Deposited- Last Modified
- February 28, 2019
- Creator
-
McCann, Eric J.
- Affiliation: Gillings School of Global Public Health, Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering
- Abstract
- The following report documents the results of a sampling project for occupational exposure to formaldehyde in the Weyerhaeuser Company facility located in Moncure, North Carolina. A total of 248 samples were collected during the months of May through August of 1994 and 1995. The samples were collected from approximately 100 employees during the day shift (8 a.m. until 4p.m.). The goal in performing the sampling was to assist Weyerhaeuser in identifying those employees who are at risk of exposure to formaldehyde levels in excess of the OSHA Action Level or PEL. By identifying the high risk employees, Weyerhaeuser hoped to be able to re-train or reassign these employees in order to reduce the risks of overexposure within their facility. Though this strategy was well-meaning, the author of this report felt that it placed too much of the blame for the overexposures upon the individual employees, and did not focus enough attention upon identifying the underlying causes of the overexposures, namely the sources of airborne formaldehyde within the facility. The purpose of this report is to assist Weyerhaeuser in identifying the areas of their facility in which employees have the potential to receive formaldehyde exposures in excess of the current Occupational Exposure Limits (OELs). In order to help quantify the risks of overexposure to formaldehyde, the probability of overexposure will be calculated for each area of the facility. In doing so, it is hoped that Weyerhaeuser will be able to improve their safety and health program by enabling them to focus their sampling efforts on those areas with the highest risks of overexposure. In the long term, the improvements to their safety and health program should help Weyerhaeuser to reduce their expenses associated with monitoring, and to reduce the risks to employee health associated with exposure to formaldehyde.
- Date of publication
- July 1999
- DOI
- Resource type
- Rights statement
- In Copyright
- Advisor
- Leith, David
- Ball, Louise
- Todd, Lori A.
- Degree
- Master of Science in Environmental Engineering
- Academic concentration
- Industrial Hygiene
- Degree granting institution
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Graduation year
- 1999
- Language
- Deposit record
- 56f7e058-1c97-4774-9946-7afdcd8e0e36
Relations
- Parents:
This work has no parents.