Document jmkOggKeOZbeBe1KjGJX94jwQ

lorajinaimc Ho?,lift ^urvicu* eijc-i, i ic.. h'Mionfel Institute fo Occur** t JU-icl Su;&ty L H**,;*; I OK Broadway, Cincinneti, Ohio <5202 Director *!# * at&: September 24, 1971 )Division of Fifties Studies * Clinical I nvcsl ijjst.ens t Horry U. Donefdson Research Industrie} Hygienist T: trip Import Place Visited: * Purpose- of Trip: Persons Corrected: Dale of Trip: Pittsburgh - Corning Plont at Port Allegany, Pennsylvgni To nke e walk thru Industrial Hygiene Survey of the plant. Richard Murrey - Personnel Richard La.roden - Plant Engineering Gocrpe Gregory' - Safety Director September IS - 17, 1973 "plaintiffs EXHIBIT mzP- j _________ -______ rtfoTv^n___________ \n it i 11i* v.-iju co>? t.:*ucnew ita*\ y 'TJlJiilA/' O WV-11188 -I SURVEY * Or THE PITTSBUfCH - COW IMG PLANT AT' PORT ALLEGANY, PENNSYIVAM I ASEPTEMBER IS, 1971 'ntreductions i general Counts 4 he plant is located In e town of about 3,000 population, 25 miles from Bradford, Pennsylvania end has at present approximately *400 employees, >25 of which erg hourly workers. `he plant occupies about )00 acres and consists of approximately 3`5 ^wildings with e combined floor space of 440,000 feet square. ; ^ the exception ot the polyurethane and unibestos finishing operations, implant works three shifts. "he company has a full time Safety Director with no staff. There Is no 'oefor or nurse, but & forty bed hospital is nearby in Port Allegany. `here* Is a corporate medical consul ter. in Pittsburgh, Dr. lee Grant, hose services are available. Chest x rays C70/nrr.) are taken yearly on 11 production ,&r sonne Bee Inns no this year 14" x 17" pletss ere to e taken biennially. At present the wearing of respirators Is mandatory n e fuM time basis in the uni best os area. Safety equipment consists rlnclpelly of cloves, herd hats.,and heel shields and respirators, yrrerrtly ~he r.eneofeJCafnt,"is working on the introduction of i company ponsored eye protect ion program, which would involve supplying personnel ith piano as veil es prescription safety glasses. Coveralls are issued o men working in scrap tins in the unlbestos area and employees In this res are supplied vjth aprons, these clothes ere not permitted to be cken heme by the employee. ne plant hes four major product i nos: Number of Production Employees Plant 1 Plant 2 i.5 Plant 6 Glass Blocks. Foam Glass Polyurethane Foem 53 dialntenence an d other 95 service people make up 10 rest of hourly rate .Plant 8 j Unibestos 36 .pope letIon.) ittsburgh - Corning PI uni splernber 2Z, 5571 uge 2 he gloss feed stock, for plant U) end (2) for the prooucjng ot glass oiock nd foam glass, is made in Coieh Mouse ( ) and (2). Major Ingredients of ix for plant (!) are: Silica Sand addition minor amounts of: N&KO3 Soda Ash Fluorspar Dolomite * Sodium Sulfate NepheJine Syenite Ant I my Oxide Re sorite /1 Batch list of raw materials used in ell. the plants Is appended. ( ascription of Manufacturing Processes * 0 make glass, the ingredients tabulated above ore fused together in a huge etch tank. n plant (1) glass blocks are mode by pressing a olob of molten glass. The ressing of the glass is done in e metal form vherc half of a block is pro- uced et a time. Then the two halves are welded together in a subsequent peratlon to form the completed block irhich is coated on the edge.with r>ri jm* ]* g vif)'* 1 pceIso as to enable mortar to hold to the s Blocks are decorated with Spray type enamels in paint spray booths n plant (2> the foam glass operation starts out with the melting of the lass making ingredients in a batch, tank.' The molten olass is run from the atch tank like viscous cold molasses to form a tube of glass which is coneyed as a continuous tube all the way from the top of the bui Iding to the irst floor. Here the tube is crushed and ground up to < 100 mash powder, :ixe.d with carbon/.put in a stainless steel pen which has been dusted with n AI2O3 parting compound end baked in an oven for about an hour, {where it ises like bread) removed from mold and annealed for about H hours. At his .pojxt .lb* J.a?jRgliis.s.-b.Jack5.ieend,, trimmed and in some instances round to shape in hooded ventilated enclosures, Glass foam blocks arc urther fabricated to make foam class boards. This is done by asphalt ceatng glass blocks and wrapping the coated sides with Kraft paper. lent 6 Polyurethane Foam olyurethonc foam is manufactured on a semi continuous basis by mixing at 5*7 two streams that contain ingredients consisting of TDI, s resin, etclyst and a fluoro carbon. These chemicals begin to polymerize almost r.rr.cdiately to produce heat which vapori20s the fluoro carbons and the v.sts like loaf of breed to produce 5 `'bun" cpprcximslaly 2 feet high by .- Ji11*bureh - Corning Pi art September 23,' |?71 2og* 5 * )- 1' . ...... five foot vide which after 8 curing period is cut"to desired sizes by hot res under a canopy hood. tong of the material is further fabricated but most is sold to the customer In huge chunks and in slices of various thickness. Plant 8 Unibestos * * ** * . ' < Unibestos, an insulation material, is manufactured principally from eroslte asbestos which arrives in Port Allegany via rail, packed in plastic lined * ^' burlap bags. Bags are opened in speeded enclosure which covers the bln end feeding mechanism. In the processing, the asbestos is wetted with sodium silicate. Diatcmaceous earth is then mixed with it and the material is roiled and dried. The dried rolls of insulation are trimmed and slit with a band saw and the finished roll nay be fabricated further; or wrapped in Kraft paper and shipped. AN scrap asbestos generated in the trlrming process is reintroduced into the processes thru the feeder hoods. General Impression of the Plant i.jysekeepino: The housekeeping in general was good. The floors are cleaned with a sweeper that hns 8 vacuum pick up which exhausts thru a bag filter which appeared to be doing a good job. Materials were piled so that passage ways ware not obstructed. So.?* congestion was noted in the area where glass blocks were decorated but the management is aware of this and plans to improve, this area. * Respirator Protect Ton: Respiratory pro feet ton is probably necessary only ;n The Unibestos plant and here wes the only place where respirators were used and here their use was mandatory for a'full eight-hour day --- cloth dust masks were worn in and around areas where chemicejs were fed into.of ess pots 'these type 'we s ks *of f r- no res p i-r-ctory <pr-ctacS.Lon. The iy.pa respirator^ used in the Unibestos p-lant is made hy Mine Safety Appliances and equipped with an ultra filter which is adequate' for asbestos. Potential Health Hazard: `Based on observation only, there appear to be the fol lowing poterrrial health hazards: 1. .Free silica from handling sand and dlatomaceous earth 2. Lead from spray pointing blocks 3. TOJ from the.manufacture no of polyurethane foam A. Amos He asbestos. * sfisburch - Corning Plan1 .sprcmbcr 23y 15Vl >-v 4 ; t The only real. ha2&rd that exists appears to be from exposure to air borne amosite asbestos in the unSbestos operations end this opinion appears to >c in agreement with that ci the Com.morweal th of Pfennsyivan 5aDepartment of ronmenfe/ Resources, Occupational Health Division, June IV, 1971. (copy of report appended) . sofentia> Safety Hazards: Though a complete safety survey was not made there -erg the ici lowing items fc'orfb mentioning.** I. There .exists a hazard'in cutting some of the salvage glass blochs with s band saw which could possibly result in the amputation of * a finger or hand. Though there is no sure way to guard a band saw, some of the suggestions In the Wat/o/vsl Safety Council's 4 * book, "Accident Prover.ticn Manual for Industrial Operation'1 Fifth Edition, Page 25-10 thru 13 would be applicable. ' 2. the chuin drive on the polymerization step of the polyurethane ''bun" production equipment should be guarded. 3. The compressed air outlets should all be removed from the plant so that the men can no longer use compressed air to clean clothes * or equipment. ) A! General Comments: Ventilation systems running to dust collectors srg present in foam class fabrication (plant 2) and foam glass finishing (plant. F5) and also in the unibestos (plant * S). * In all there are four tag houses consisting of two 30,000 cfm units in the foam glass operations and two 55,000 cf > units in the unibest plant. 'tto-'eir 4s -recycled-and .ibis is good from the view point cf re introduct ion of toxic material into the pi ant. However, since there is no makeup air being supplied, "this could cause.a deficiency of air In the winter time when the plant is buttoned up and this couic Interfere with the efficient functioning of the ventilat ion system, during cold weather, since the blowers will be starved for air, and will be puMine cold atr by infiltration from the out of doors or ^from other unbeated areas, hence, creating excessive draff(ness. D. Vent nation on Unibestos One rat ions: There Is ventilation of soma sori on most unines'ios operations. A sketch of .the ventilation on the feed end as described by Mr. leman and Hr. Wallingford Is appended. 5 The ventilation el 'feeder bln hoods was found to be more then 'adequate v/tTii face-vclocifics in which one reeding ran as low as 150 ft/min with ell others from 200-275 ft/mln. This Indicated that the ventilation design was ocod and that ths .'ventilation was working properly but it does not guarantee that the dust levels will meet current TLV's. Openings on the large scrap bin showed a velocity of 200-275 ft/min which again indl cafes* good ventilation. . On the finishing operation ventilation was sorely Jacking. There was definite Jack of hooding and ventilation associated with these operations. The band saw operation js not hooded. It does have two 6 inch ducts beside the bend saw pulling with a face velocity of only 00 ft/rain. Such Jo*;/ velocities do little or nothing to pick up asbestos dust or any other level of dost. The drying hoods have at the canopy entrance f-00 ft/mln ventilation which appears to be low but could be adequate. The adeqvecy of the ventilation can only be determined by monitoring for air borne * asbestos. ... . [There is a practice of dropping the finished roll of unibestos from the fable onto a *'bun'' of polyurethane foam and this produces dust (it produced more dust when It was dropped directly on the floor). Probably the roll should be lowered to the floor mechan ically and in addition it should be set on. e orating equipped with down draft ventilation for the purpose of preventing loosely heid dust from becoming air borne. urr.-ary and Conclusion 'hough there are potential health hazards In the operations of the. Fi'ttsburg :orni ng^'T'orT'Aneccry plant and these'inct ufie sTi i ca , 'Icad'vnd TD'i , -tfre*"m `Oficus health problem is apparentJy, the handling and processing of erositc isbestos in the unibestes plants. he company recognizes their problem but since they plan to bo out of the mosite asbestos insulation business in mtd 1572, they hesitate to spend ,cur Si00,000. for hooding end ventilation which their engineering study ndlcates is necessary to control this hazard. As a result they have ppiiad to the Labor Department for a variance (copy attached). i Pittsburgh - U/'Hing Sopi ember 22, JS7i' rape Though the amesitc feed end of the process has-e well designed ventilation system which pulls sir through hood openings at recommended velocities, the finishing end where the unibestos rolls ere trimmed end split with a bend saw, has for ell practice! purposes no ventilation at ell. The finishing end Is operating as e non-corvt rolled ope ret ion. An heroic attempt has been made to protect personnel from air borne asbestos by making it mandatory to wear respirators in Plant 8 for as long as one is in the are*. In most ceses this amounts to a workman weering a respirator for practically his whole 8-hour day, which is not a desirable practice*end such practice may not be affording the respiratory protection that It is thought to, since respirators are easily defeated. For example, it was noticed in one instance where only one strap w*s used on the respirator, in another instance the respirator was repeatedly lifted off face so as to carry on a conversation. !4est important of all, respirators are made so that theoretically they fit everyone, but they don't. Some people can not get' a good seal with a respirator because thoir faces don't fit the normal pattern. In addition to the above, respirators are fatiguing due to high breathing resistance and on en S-hour day basis there is bound to be e tendency in | atmosphere lacking irritant cases as in Plant 8 to wear the respirator ,.j sutfi c vsy as Vo urtfeel It by allowing air to leak in around the face seals. In summary, 1 believe that such use of respirators on an S-hour bnsis is no guarantee that the desired respiratory protection is being achieved. A greater confidence in cuaranteainc respiratory protection could be achieved, with supplied air respirators since the breathing resistance would be practically eliminated and whare a positive sir flow would prevail. However, no respirator is a substitute for local exhaust ventilation and the bast guarantee of adequate respiratory protection would be to install .evacuate local exhaust vent Hat ion and hoodies oh the finishing operations. Then TlVs should be approached more closely. Another point that should be considered is that in working with asbestos there could be a potent lei outpla.nt problem from the women laundering the jren's work clothes at hoes and from asbestos dust taken home on the heir of the workmen. This can ts prevented by company furnished work clothes and compulsory showering at the end cf each shift. Clothing should be supplied from the skin out and must be laundered on the plant site or at e* conrwjrtifi! laundry foci lily especially sot up to wash work clothes contea in feted with toxic chemicals. Scplwimr 23, ;S7J Page 7 ' Pncommendations ' In view* of the feet that there Is essentially no local exhaust ventilation or hooding on the finishInc operation in the on(bestos plant 6 where euosWt asbestos Is processed and since the use of 6-hour respiratory protection should not be tolerated over a prolonged period of time, it is recownended that the company be given some reasonable time to Install ventilation end hooding on the unibssfos operation or else the operation should be terminated. >' H after the installation of ventilation and hooding, TlVss ere not mc^, thgn further hygienic measures should be instigated so as to meet current . TLV`s. J ; *i ! t