Survey of Health Hazard Control Systems for Formaldehyde Production Facilities. Summary Report.

摘要

The principal objective of the study was to survey the health hazard control systems used in the formaldehyde production industry. Preliminary visits were made to 11 formaldehyde production facilities. One week on/site visits were made to four facilities. All of the personal and area air quality samples taken indicated that the operators were exposed to formaldehyde (50000) at lower concentrations than the OSHA permissible exposure limit (PEL) of 3 parts per million. It was noted that the operator exposure when loading a rail car or tank truck where loading is not provided with local exhaust ventilation control could exceed OSHA limits, depending on weather conditions such as wind direction and speed. Methanol (67561) exposures also did not exceed the PEL of 200 parts per million. The following engineering controls were found to be effective: double or single mechanical seals on pumps; reuse of absorber emissions; purge collection systems; water scrubber on storage tank emissions; water scrubber on loading ventilation system; automatic loading; condensing loop on methanol storage tank emissions; and enclosed process.