NIOSH Comments to DOL on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's Proposed Rule on Occupational Exposure to Cadmium by J. D. Millar, September 18, 1990

摘要

The testimony contains comments from NIOSH regarding requests for information at an OSHA hearing on cadmium (7440439). The following steel making operations were listed as potentially problematic with respect to low level cadmium exposure: blast furnace operations; sinter facility operations; basic oxygen, electric, and open hearth furnace operations; leaded steel production; maintenance, cleanup and repair operations; lead and zinc coating operations; teeming and pouring operations. The estimate of total workers potentially exposed to cadmium compounds is given as 297,684 for 15,501 facilities. NIOSH recommends that workers with occupational exposure to cadmium not smoke in the workplace. Population studies are reviewed which deal with trace metals in occupationally and nonoccupationally exposed individuals; the exposure and accumulation of cadmium in populations from Japan, the United States and Sweden; normal levels of cadmium in diet, urine, blood, and tissues of inhabitants of the United States; and urinary cadmium and beta-2-microglobulin levels of individuals. Other topics briefly noted include air monitoring, medical monitoring and laboratory measurements of blood and urine cadmium concentrations.