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Title: Industrial-hygiene walk-through survey report of Tetra Pak, Inc. , Denton, Texas

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:5549171

A walk-through industrial-hygiene survey was conducted at the Tetra Pak Denton facility in Denton, Texas to determine possible employee exposure to acrylates or methacrylates. Acrylated inks and coatings have been used at this facility since 1984 to produce aseptic flexible packaging material for the food industry. There were three offset printing press lines used at the company, each with five offset presses to apply different colored inks. As many as five separate wet-on-wet applications of acrylated ink formulations sometimes preceded the coating application. After the inks were applied they were passed through an offset blanket coater. Following this step an electron-beam-curing unit radiated the inks and coating. Environmental enclosures surrounded the offset-printing presses in order to cut down on noise and mist. Of the 176 employees at this company, 37 had potential contact with acrylates. No air monitoring has been conducted at this facility for acrylates. One case of dermatitis arose at the company since 1984 and possibly was related directly to skin contact with acrylates. There was a safety program in place at the company and personnel records were maintained for each employee.

Research Organization:
National Inst. for Occupational Safety and Health, Cincinnati, OH (USA)
OSTI ID:
5549171
Report Number(s):
PB-88-127246/XAB; IWS-157.18
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English