Is it just another employee complaint? A Case Study of Occupational Illness in the Workplace

Occupational illnesses are often not documented by classical surveillance methods in the absence of a medical screening program or the onset of acute symptoms at the time of exposure. This case study highlights an example where an employee reported headaches, breathing problems, and dizziness, which were documented by the employer in the company's Hazard Assessment Plan, but no further action was taken until an outside consultant identified the source of the health complaints. During an on-site OSHA consultation visit, a comprehensive program review and site assessment determined that employee complaints were possibly related to welding on galvanized steel. Industrial hygiene monitoring confirmed that exposures to zinc oxide fume ranged from 5.99 mg/m3 to 25.0 mg/m3. The OSHA Permissible Exposure Limit (PEL) for zinc oxide fumes is 5 mg/m3. Elevated exposures to zinc oxide fumes are associated with symptoms of metal fume fever. Implementation of multiple engineering controls, including localized exhaust ventilation, reduced employee exposures to zinc oxide fumes to the range of 0.6 mg/m3 to 1.6 mg/m3. Employees were no longer required to wear respirators, although most continued to voluntarily wear N-95 respirators. The employee who had been experiencing symptoms of welding fume fever reported that the symptoms have subsided. This case study highlights the need to educate employers on the identification of symptoms of occupational illnesses based on the known health hazards individual tasks. Additional research is necessary to determine methods to capture cases of work-related illnesses where the symptoms are not unique to the particular types of exposure.