Walk-through survey report: styrene and noise exposures during fiber reinforced plastic boat manufacturing at Century Boat Company, Inc., Panama City, Florida, report no. CT-306-13a.
NIOSH 2005 Dec; :1-13
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). NIOSH was established in 1970 by the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act, at the same time that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was created in the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). The OSH Act mandated NIOSH to conduct research and education programs separate from the standard-setting and enforcement functions conducted by OSHA. An important area of NIOSH research involves measures for controlling occupational exposures to potential chemical and physical hazards. On August 25, 2005, researchers from the Engineering and Physical Hazards Branch (EPHB) of the Division of Applied Research and Technology (DART) conducted a walkthrough survey at Century Boat Company, Inc., in Panama City, Florida. The primary purpose of this walk-through was to learn more about the fiberglass-reinforced plastic (FRP) boat manufacturing industry and to assess the suitability of this facility for an indepth survey. The main goals for the walk-through survey included performing a preliminary assessment of the occupational exposures to styrene vapor in air, and observing the effectiveness of engineering exposure-control measures during the FRP boat-manufacturing operations. A secondary objective was to perform a preliminary assessment of the noise exposures occurring during these operations. The FRP boat manufacturing process mainly used at Century Boats is known as the open molding process. The facility is divided into six buildings which occupy a total of 123,822 square feet (ft2). Of this area, 113,058 ft2 is dedicated to manufacturing. Century Boats has 16 boat models ranging in size from 17 to 32 feet (ft.) in length. The facility operates one shift, working Monday through Thursday from 7:00 AM to 5:30 PM, and producing 1500 to 1700 boats per year. There are approximately 300 employees at this facility.
Boat-manufacturing-industry; Styrenes; Exposure-assessment; Engineering-controls; Control-technology; Fibrous-dusts; Fibrous-glass; Noise; Noise-analysis; Plastics; Region-4; Reinforced-plastics
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Division of Applied Research and Technology, Engineering and Physical Hazards Branch, Mail Stop R-5, 4676 Columbia Parkway, Cincinnati, OH 45226
Field Studies; Control Technology
NTIS Accession No.
Research Tools and Approaches: Control Technology and Personal Protective Equipment
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health