Industry-wide studies report: a walk-through survey of R. T. French Company, Springfield, Missouri. Industry-wide study. [Ethylene oxide exposures]

A walk-through survey was conducted to assess the feasibility of including workers from the facility in a NIOSH mortality and industrial hygiene study of workers exposed to ethylene oxide. Dry and wet food products such as mustard and spices are produced at the facility. ETO was first used at the facility in 1973 to reduce the microbial content of a variety of spices. About 77,250 pounds of ETO were used annually except in 1984 when about 36,000 was used. In 1984, the use of ETO was discontinued; raw materials are treated by an outside contractor. It was not possible to determine from personnel records which workers were potentially exposed to ETO. The author concluded that the facility should not be included in the larger ETO study because adequate personnel records or other records that can be used for identifying past and present workers exposed to ETO were not available.