Tetrahydrofuran exposure in Navy-contract coating work

January 17, 1986

The Honorable John W. Warner
United States Senator
[Recipient address omitted]
Dear Senator Warner:

This is in response to your correspondence of December 11, 1985, on behalf of Mr. Robert C. Hutson, President of Ocean Research, Inc., Diggs, Virginia. It is our understanding that Mr. Hutson's company has a contract to manufacture rope helo slings for the U.S. Department of Navy, that coatings are applied to the ropes, and that according to Navy specifications, the coating formula must include tetrahydrofuran. Please accept my apology for the delay in response.

Mr. Hutson stated that he and his employees are experiencing harmful health effects from preparing and applying the coating formula. For this reason, Mr. Hutson is trying to get the Navy to change its specification to permit the use of a substitute solvent for tetrahydrofuran.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has regulations limiting employee exposure to tetrahydrofuran, but while the substitution of a less toxic chemical for tetrahydrofuran is one possible solution to a problem of employee over-exposure, this agency has no authority to intercede in a contract dispute and require that this be done. We also wish to point out that while xylene, methyl isobutyl ketone, Cellosolve acetate, methyl ethyl ketone, and Moca may not have as highly irritating properties as tetrahydrofuran, they nonetheless are also toxic and must be handled under properly controlled conditions.

OSHA standards require employers to maintain employee exposures to toxic air contaminants at or below permissible exposure limits with engineering or administrative controls, whenever feasible. If feasible engineering or administrative controls are not fully effective, then the remainder of the required protection must be obtained by providing employees with and requiring that they use personal respiratory protection devices.

The OSHA permissible exposure limit or tetrahydrofuran is 200 parts per million as an 8-hour, time-weighted average concentration. The limit appears in Table Z-1 of standard 29 CFR 1910.1000. We have enclosed a copy of this standard and also a copy of OSHA standard 29 CFR 1910.134 covering respiratory protection.

The Commonwealth of Virginia administers its own occupational safety and health program under a provision of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, subject to close monitoring by Federal OSHA. If Mr. Hutson should need any further information from the administering State agency, or wish to contact it for any reason, the address and telephone number are:

Carol Amato
Virginia Department of Labor and Industry
P. O. Box 12064
Richmond, Virginia 2341-0064

Telephone: (804) 786-2376

Since our Philadelphia Regional Office has direct supervision over Federal OSHA activities in the Commonwealth of Virginia, we are forwarding your correspondence to that office for appropriate attention. The address and telephone number of the Philadelphia Regional Office are:

US Department of Labor - OSHA
Gateway Building, Suite 2100
3535 Market Street
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104

If we may be of further assistance, please feel free to contact us again.

Sincerely,
John B. Miles, Jr., Director
Directorate of Field Operations

Enclosures

[Requester letter reproduced on OSHA page; omitted here.]

[The referenced OSHA standards are not reproduced on the page.]