Firefighters’ multiple exposure assessments in practice (original) (raw)
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The Science of the total environment, 2017
This work aims to characterize personal exposure of firefighters to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in non-fire work environments (fire stations), and assesses the respective risks. Eighteen PAHs (16 considered by USEPA as priority pollutants, dibenzo[a,l]pyrene and benzo[j]fluoranthene) were monitored in breathing zones of workers at five Portuguese fire stations during a normal shift. The obtained levels of PAHs fulfilled all existent occupational exposure limits as well as air quality guidelines with total concentrations (ΣPAHs) in range of 46.8-155ngm(-3). Light compounds (2-3 rings) were the most predominant congeners (74-96% of ΣPAHs) whereas PAHs with 5-6 rings accounted 3-9% of ΣPAHs. Fuel and biomass combustions, vehicular traffic emissions, and use of lubricant oils were identified as the main sources of PAHs exposure at the studied fire corporations. Incremental lifetime cancer risks were below the recommend USEPA guideline of 10(-6) and thus negligible for all th...
Biological monitoring for exposure to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) (IUPAC Recommendations 2000
Pure and Applied Chemistry, 2000
Republication or reproduction of this report or its storage and/or dissemination by electronic means is permitted without the need for formal IUPAC permission on condition that an acknowledgment, with full reference to the source, along with use of the copyright symbol ©, the name IUPAC, and the year of publication, are prominently visible. Publication of a translation into another language is subject to the additional condition of prior approval from the relevant IUPAC National Adhering Organization.
Risk assessment of exposure to volatile organic compounds in different indoor environments
Environmental Research, 2004
The lifetime cancer risks of exposure of cooks and food service workers, office workers, housewives, and schoolchildren in Hong Kong to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in their respective indoor premises during normal indoor activities were assessed. The estimated cancer risk for housewives was the highest, and the second-highest lifetime cancer risk to VOC exposure was for the groups of food service and office workers. Within a certain group of the population, the lifetime cancer risk of the home living room was one to two orders of magnitude higher than that in other indoor environments. The estimated lifetime risks of food service workers were about two times that of office workers. Furthermore, the cancer risks of working in kitchen environments were approximately two times higher than the risks arising from studying in air-conditioned classrooms. The bus riders had higher average lifetime cancer risks than those travelling by Mass Transit Railway. For all target groups of people, the findings of this study show that the exposures to VOCs may lead to lifetime risks higher than 1 Â 10 À6. Seven indoor environments were selected for the measurement of human exposure and the estimation of the corresponding lifetime cancer risks. The lifetime risks with 8-h average daily exposures to individual VOCs in individual environments were compared. People in a smoking home had the highest cancer risk, while students in an air-conditioned classroom had the lowest risk of cancer. Benzene accounted for about or more than 40% of the lifetime cancer risks for each category of indoor environment. Nonsmoking and smoking residences in Hong Kong had cancer risks associated with 8-h exposures of benzene above 1.8 Â 10 À5 and 8.0 Â 10 À5 , respectively. The cancer risks associated with 1,1dichloroethene, chloroform, methylene chloride, trichloroethene, and tetrachloroethene became more significant at selected homes and restaurants. Higher lifetime cancer risks due to exposure to styrene were only observed in the administrative and printing offices and air-conditioned classrooms. Higher lifetime cancer risks related to chloroform exposures were observed at the restaurant and the canteen.
Journal of hazardous materials, 2016
This work characterizes levels of eighteen polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the breathing air zone of firefighters during their regular work shift at eight Portuguese fire stations, and the firefighters' total internal dose by six urinary monohydroxyl metabolites (OH-PAHs). Total PAHs (ΣPAHs) concentrations varied widely (46.4-428ng/m(3)), mainly due to site specificity (urban/rural) and characteristics (age and layout) of buildings. Airborne PAHs with 2-3 rings were the most abundant (63.9-95.7% ΣPAHs). Similarly, urinary 1-hydroxynaphthalene and 1-hydroxyacenaphthene were the predominant metabolites (66-96% ΣOH-PAHs). Naphthalene contributed the most to carcinogenic ΣPAHs (39.4-78.1%) in majority of firehouses; benzo[a]pyrene, the marker of carcinogenic PAHs, accounted with 1.5-10%. Statistically positive significant correlations (r≥0.733, p≤0.025) were observed between ΣPAHs and urinary ΣOH-PAHs for firefighters of four fire stations suggesting that, at these sites,...
Archives of Toxicology, 2005
When deriving health-based exposure limits in recent years, increasing attention has been drawn to susceptible subpopulations, in particular to children. We investigated the differences in kinetics between children and adults during inhalation of styrene as a typical category-3 volatile organic compound (VOC), i.e., a gas with a low reactivity and low water solubility allowing a high rate of alveolar absorption. Internal exposure was simulated using a physiologically based kinetic model over a broad range of airborne concentrations (1-1000 ppm) and for an exposure time of up to 8 h according to the scenario in the acute exposure guideline level (AEGL) program. Age-specific anatomical and physiological parameters and compound-specific data was derived from the literature. The calculated concentrations in arterial blood are higher in children than in adults, and are highest in the newborn. For an 8-h exposure to low concentrations, the calculated arterial concentration in the newborn is higher by a factor of 2.3 than in the adult. This is due mainly to the relatively high ventilation rate and the immature metabolism. With increasing airborne concentration, the ratio of arterial concentrations (newborn/adult) increases to a maximum of 3.8 at 130 ppm in ambient air, and declines with further increments of concentration to a value of 1.7. This is because the metabolism of the newborn becomes non-linear at lower concentrations than in adults. At high concentrations, metabolism is saturated in both age groups. For shorter exposures, the dose dependency of the concentration ratios (newborn/adult) is less pronounced. This is the first article to show that the intra-species assessment factor may vary with concentration and duration of exposure.
In 2015, we measured polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in atmospheric fine particulate matter (PM 2.5) collected from 5 cities in Zhejiang Province. The mean toxic equivalent quotient (TEQ) values of benzo(a)pyrene (BaP) ranged between 1.2-3.1 ng/m 3. The BaP-TEQ displayed seasonal trends, such that winter > spring and autumn > summer. During the winter, the most abundant individual PAHs were 4-6ring PAHs (84.04-91.65%). The median daily intake of atmospheric PAHs ranged between 2.0-7.4 ng/day for all populations, with seasonal trends identical to that of BaP-TEQ. The 95 th incremental lifetime cancer risk (ILCR) values induced by PM 2.5-bound PAHs were far lower than 10 −6 for all populations. The data suggested that the pollution levels in the 5 Zhejiang Province cities were higher than the Chinese National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS). In the future, relevant measures should be taken to control atmospheric PAHs, especially 4-6 ring PAHs. The data also revealed no obvious cancer risk for populations residing in these 5 cities of Zhejiang Province. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a large group of ubiquitous environmental poisons mainly sourced from the pyrolysis of organic matter or incomplete combustion 1. Motor vehicles, home heating, fossil fuel combustion, and industrial processes are major sources of atmospheric PAHs 2. After various combustion processes, gas phases or particulate-bound PAHs are emitted into the atmosphere 3. The atmosphere is the most important means of PAHs dispersal 4. Due to their widespread source and persistent characteristics, PAHs are dispersed through atmospheric transport and result in being ubiquitous in the environment 5. Human beings are exposed to gas phases or particulate-bound PAHs in ambient air. Atmospheric PAHs adsorbed on fine particulate matter (PM 2.5) enter into the human body through the respiratory system 6. Several studies reported that 59-97% of atmospheric PAHs were adsorbed on PM 2.5 7-10. Therefore, recent studies have used atmospheric PAHs in PM 2.5 to determine respiratory exposure concentrations 11-14. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has listed 16 PAHs as priority pollutants to regard to potential exposure and adverse health effects on humans 15. Some PAHs are classified as carcinogenic materials to humans by the International Agency for Research on Cancer 16. According to these, Benzo[a]pyrene was classified as carcinogenic material (Group 1), naphthalene, chrysene, benz[a]anthracene, benzo[k]fluoranthene and benzo[b] fluoranthene were classified as probably carcinogenic materials (Group 2B) 16. Therefore, PAHs pollution poses a substantial concern.
Toxicity of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) mixtures using human derived cells
WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, 2010
Assessing the effects of contaminants is an issue of high priority for governmental safety health and environmental agencies around the world. The general conservative consensus is that chemicals in mixtures interact by concentration addition. However, previous studies also report that concentration addition of mixture components does not always reflect the overall toxicity of a mixture. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) such as Benzene, Toluene, Xylene and Formaldehyde (BTXF) belong to the air pollutants found in urban and indoor environments. They could trigger acute and chronic adverse health effects like allergy, respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. The volatile nature of these compounds poses additional problems in assessing individual volatile chemical toxicity let alone mixtures of these chemicals. Our research aims at establishing the true toxic effects of VOC exposure in vitro using a static direct exposure glass-chamber method. This was achieved by assessing and comparing individual and interactive effects of VOCs in exposed human epithelial lung (A549) and liver cells (HepG2) using the MTS cytotoxicity assay to assess cell viability upon VOC insult. The study results clearly indicated the limitation of the concentration addition method used in assessing volatile mixtures cytotoxicity and the need to develop new techniques for rapid and accurate mixture toxicity determination. The study may have implications for regulatory risk assessment of environmental volatile organic chemicals.
Evaluation of Dermal Exposure to Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Fire Fighters
The NIOSH Health Hazard Evaluation Program carried out a study at a fire service training facility to determine if airborne polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and other aromatic hydrocarbons generated during live fire training contaminate and pass through the skin of fire fighters. Procedures: • In each of two rounds, we evaluated three controlled structure burns (one per day). Five fire fighters participated in each burn. • We sampled PAHs, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and particulate in air. • We collected breath and urine samples before and after each burn. We analyzed the breath samples for aromatic hydrocarbons and the urine samples for PAH breakdown products. • We took wipe samples on fire fighters’ skin to measure PAH contamination before and right after each burn. • We measured VOCs released from turnout gear before and after each burn. • We tested the SCBA equipment to make sure it worked properly. Results: • We detected possible cancer-causing PAHs and VOCs in a...
Journal of the American College of Toxicology, 1989
N 1979, THE U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) began a long-term series of studies I known generically as the Total Exposure Assessment Methodology (TEAM) studies. TEAM studies have been carried out in about a dozen U.S. cities and have involved more than 2000 participants. Since the participants were selected using a strict probabilistic sampling frame, they actually represent a much larger population, perhaps 3 million U.S. citizens in all. These studies have been carried out on three pollutants or groups of pollutants: volatile organic compounds (VOCs), carbon monoxide (CO), and pesticides. In this paper, I will limit my attention to the studies of VOCs. The CO studies have been published as EPA and as journal articles.(3,4) The final report on the pesticide studies have not yet been published, although one article on the nine-home pilot study has been published(5) and a progress report on the main study is available.c6) Perhaps the major contribution of the TEAM studies has been their emphasis on the following two concepts: 1. Direct measurement of personal exposure-particularly by means of personal air monitors-but also including other sources of direct exposure such as food, beverages, and drinking water 2. A survey design involving stratified probabilistic sampling to allow extrapolation of the results to a much larger population Probably the central finding of all of these studies has been that the major sources of exposure to all chemical groups studied have been small and close to the person, usually inside his or her home. This finding is so at odds with the conventional wisdom (that the major sources are industry, autos, urban areas, incinerators, landfills, and hazardous waste sites) that it seems safe to say that most decision makers have not yet grasped its import. For example, if these studies are correct, it makes little sense to spend millions of dollars a year monitoring the outdoor air, since so little of our exposure is provided by that route. Likewise, the present allocation of
Inhalation Toxicology, 1990
Biomathematical modeling has become an important tool to assess xenobiotic exposure in humans. In the present study, we have used a human physiologically-based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) model and an simple compartmental toxicokinetic model of benzo(a)pyrene (BaP) kinetics and its 3-hydroxybenzo(a)pyrene (3-OHBaP) metabolite to reproduce the timecourse of this biomarker of exposure in the urine of industrially exposed workers and in turn predict the most plausible exposure scenarios. The models were constructed from in vivo experimental data in rats and then extrapolated from animals to humans after assessing and adjusting the most sensitive model parameters as well as species specific physiological parameters. Repeated urinary voids from workers exposed to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) have been collected over the course of a typical workweek and during subsequent days off work; urinary concentrations of 3-OHBaP were then determined. Based on the information obtained for each worker (BaP air concentration, daily shift hours, tasks, protective equipment), the time courses of 3-OHBaP in the urine of the different workers have been simulated using the PBPK and toxicokinetic models, considering the various possible exposure routes, oral, dermal and inhalation. Both models were equally able to closely reproduce the observed time course of 3-OHBaP in the urine of workers and predicted similar exposure scenarios. Simulations of various scenarios suggest that the workers under study were exposed mainly by the dermal route. Comparison of measured air concentration levels of BaP with simulated values needed to obtain a good approximation of observed time course further pointed out that inhalation was not the main route of exposure for most of the studied workers. Both kinetic models appear as a useful tool to interpret biomonitoring data of PAH exposure on the basis of 3-OHBaP levels.