{"title":"RE: Effect of Skin Protection and Skin Irritation on the Internal Exposure to Carbon Disulfide in Employees of the Viscose Industry.","authors":"J. Cherrie","doi":"10.1093/annhyg/mev090","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/annhyg/mev090","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":342592,"journal":{"name":"The Annals of occupational hygiene","volume":"5 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133908943","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
I have been a member of both British and Dutch Occupational Hygiene Societies and a ‘hygienist’ (AKA: ‘exposure scientist’) for >30 years. During my attendance at a recent meeting in Manchester between Occupational Health and Safety specialists from companies contributing to the IMA-Europe Dust Monitoring Programme and representatives of the UK’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE), I was intrigued and amazed to note that the following title showed up in the programme: ‘Hygiene Without Numbers’. I wondered, did HSE finally discover the key to the Holy Grail, or were they trying to put the genie back into its bottle given that UK Business needs help with cutting red tape nowadays (https://cutting-red-tape. cabinetoffice.gov.uk/)? In truth, the ‘Hygiene Without Numbers’ concept presents nothing new since it basically boils down to the old ‘COSHH Essentials’ concoction (Russell et al., 1998) in a new wineskin. The old mantras of ‘measurements are expensive’, ‘measurements delay control measures’, ‘with statistics you can prove anything’, and of course ‘if you provide enough guidance on best practices everything will be well-controlled’ made up the gist of the message. If ‘hygiene’ was as simple as suggested in the ‘Hygiene Without Numbers’ concept, we would have solved the problem of hazardous working conditions and evolving health risks a long time ago. Numbers are indeed not required for approaches like control banding, which entail moving from hazard assessment to control without an exposure assessment step. Such numberless interventions may be appealing to policymakers, who face the hefty task of creating meaningful and economically feasible guidelines for workplace health. However, treating workers’ exposure to chemical, biological, or physical agents as a static entity that can be satisfactory controlled by guidance sheets is factually wrong and ignores the intrinsic variability of occupational exposure. An individual’s work tasks and circumstances can produce very different exposures from minute-to-minute, from hour-to-hour, from shift-to-shift, from week-to-week, and from season-to-season. Furthermore, individuals performing the same job in the same location might, more often than not, have considerably different average exposures (as has been convincingly shown in this journal; Kromhout et al., 1993; Symanski et al., 2006). Ignoring temporal and personal variability in occupational exposures might lead to underestimated health risks and wrongly advised risk management measures. In order to control hazardous exposures well, we must carefully collect numbers (perform measurements), especially in situations where exposure situations are not obvious (e.g. respirable crystalline silica), or in situations where exposures are not restricted to a point source and direct interaction with the exposure source is essential and needed (e.g. a nurse providing care to a Ann. Occup. Hyg., 2016, 1–2 doi:10.1093/annhyg/mev096
我是英国和荷兰职业卫生协会的成员，也是一名“卫生学家”(又名:“暴露科学家”)，已有30多年的历史。最近，我参加了在曼彻斯特举行的一次会议，与会者是为ima -欧洲粉尘监测计划做出贡献的公司的职业健康与安全专家和英国健康与安全执行委员会(HSE)的代表。我很感兴趣，也很惊讶地注意到，会议中出现了以下标题:“没有数字的卫生”。我想知道，HSE最终是找到了圣杯的钥匙，还是他们试图把精灵放回瓶子里，因为英国商业现在需要帮助减少繁文缛节(https://cutting-red-tape)。cabinetoffice.gov.uk /) ?事实上，“没有数字的卫生”概念并没有什么新意，因为它基本上可以归结为旧的“COSHH必需品”混合物(Russell et al.， 1998)在一个新的葡萄皮中。“度量是昂贵的”、“度量延迟控制度量”、“用统计数据你可以证明任何事情”，当然还有“如果你在最佳实践方面提供足够的指导，一切都会得到很好的控制”，这些古老的格言构成了信息的要点。如果“卫生”像“没有数字的卫生”概念中建议的那样简单，我们早就解决了危险的工作条件和不断演变的健康风险问题了。像控制带这样的方法确实不需要数字，这需要在没有暴露评估步骤的情况下从危害评估转移到控制。如此多的干预措施可能会吸引政策制定者，他们面临着为工作场所健康制定有意义且经济上可行的指导方针的艰巨任务。然而，将工人对化学、生物或物理因素的暴露视为一种静态实体，可以通过指导手册进行令人满意的控制，这在事实上是错误的，并且忽略了职业暴露的内在可变性。个人的工作任务和环境会在每一分钟、每一小时、每一班、每一周、每一季中产生非常不同的暴露。此外，在同一地点从事同样工作的个人，往往会有相当大的平均暴露量差异(正如本杂志令人信服地显示的那样;Kromhout等人，1993;赛门铁斯基等人，2006年)。忽视职业接触的时间和个人变异性可能导致低估健康风险，并错误地建议风险管理措施。为了很好地控制危险暴露，我们必须仔细收集数字(进行测量)，特别是在暴露情况不明显的情况下(例如可吸入的结晶二氧化硅)，或者在暴露不限于点源并且必须和暴露源直接互动的情况下(例如护士提供护理)。Occup。Hyg。中文信息学报，2016,1-2 doi:10.1093/annhyg/mev096
{"title":"Hygiene Without Numbers.","authors":"H. Kromhout","doi":"10.1093/annhyg/mev096","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/annhyg/mev096","url":null,"abstract":"I have been a member of both British and Dutch Occupational Hygiene Societies and a ‘hygienist’ (AKA: ‘exposure scientist’) for >30 years. During my attendance at a recent meeting in Manchester between Occupational Health and Safety specialists from companies contributing to the IMA-Europe Dust Monitoring Programme and representatives of the UK’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE), I was intrigued and amazed to note that the following title showed up in the programme: ‘Hygiene Without Numbers’. I wondered, did HSE finally discover the key to the Holy Grail, or were they trying to put the genie back into its bottle given that UK Business needs help with cutting red tape nowadays (https://cutting-red-tape. cabinetoffice.gov.uk/)? In truth, the ‘Hygiene Without Numbers’ concept presents nothing new since it basically boils down to the old ‘COSHH Essentials’ concoction (Russell et al., 1998) in a new wineskin. The old mantras of ‘measurements are expensive’, ‘measurements delay control measures’, ‘with statistics you can prove anything’, and of course ‘if you provide enough guidance on best practices everything will be well-controlled’ made up the gist of the message. If ‘hygiene’ was as simple as suggested in the ‘Hygiene Without Numbers’ concept, we would have solved the problem of hazardous working conditions and evolving health risks a long time ago. Numbers are indeed not required for approaches like control banding, which entail moving from hazard assessment to control without an exposure assessment step. Such numberless interventions may be appealing to policymakers, who face the hefty task of creating meaningful and economically feasible guidelines for workplace health. However, treating workers’ exposure to chemical, biological, or physical agents as a static entity that can be satisfactory controlled by guidance sheets is factually wrong and ignores the intrinsic variability of occupational exposure. An individual’s work tasks and circumstances can produce very different exposures from minute-to-minute, from hour-to-hour, from shift-to-shift, from week-to-week, and from season-to-season. Furthermore, individuals performing the same job in the same location might, more often than not, have considerably different average exposures (as has been convincingly shown in this journal; Kromhout et al., 1993; Symanski et al., 2006). Ignoring temporal and personal variability in occupational exposures might lead to underestimated health risks and wrongly advised risk management measures. In order to control hazardous exposures well, we must carefully collect numbers (perform measurements), especially in situations where exposure situations are not obvious (e.g. respirable crystalline silica), or in situations where exposures are not restricted to a point source and direct interaction with the exposure source is essential and needed (e.g. a nurse providing care to a Ann. Occup. Hyg., 2016, 1–2 doi:10.1093/annhyg/mev096","PeriodicalId":342592,"journal":{"name":"The Annals of occupational hygiene","volume":"209 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115032463","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Thinking about Occupation-Response and Exposure-Response Relationships: Vehicle Mechanics, Chrysotile, and Mesothelioma.","authors":"K. Teschke","doi":"10.1093/annhyg/mew015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/annhyg/mew015","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":342592,"journal":{"name":"The Annals of occupational hygiene","volume":"21 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132601850","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Isocyanate exposure is known to be hazardous when polyurethane paints are applied with a spray gun, but less is known of exposure when paint is applied with a paint brush and roller. Concentrations of 1,6-hexamethylene diisocyanate (HDI) monomer and three HDI polymers were assessed when two moisture-cure polyurethane paints containing 31-35% isocyanates were applied with a paint roller and brush. Short-term 15-min samples were taken during paint application in an indoor test environment with no ventilation (n= 12); in an outdoor test environment (n= 11); and in an outdoor in-situ assessment (n= 22). The outdoor in-situ assessment involved the painting of a bus shelter and light poles at a public transit station over two night shifts. All isocyanate samples were below analytical detection. The analytical limits of detection for HDI monomer, HDI biuret, HDI isocyanurate, and HDI uretdione were 0.005, 0.84, 0.87, and 0.88 µg, respectively. The finding that isocyanate concentrations were below detection is attributed to the use of paint roller and brush which minimize paint aerosolization and the paint formulation itself which contained <1% of volatile HDI monomer.
{"title":"Isocyanate Exposure Below Analytical Detection When a Paint Brush and Roller Are Used to Apply Moisture-Cure Polyurethane Paint.","authors":"C. Reeb-Whitaker, T. Schoonover","doi":"10.1093/annhyg/mew003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/annhyg/mew003","url":null,"abstract":"Isocyanate exposure is known to be hazardous when polyurethane paints are applied with a spray gun, but less is known of exposure when paint is applied with a paint brush and roller. Concentrations of 1,6-hexamethylene diisocyanate (HDI) monomer and three HDI polymers were assessed when two moisture-cure polyurethane paints containing 31-35% isocyanates were applied with a paint roller and brush. Short-term 15-min samples were taken during paint application in an indoor test environment with no ventilation (n= 12); in an outdoor test environment (n= 11); and in an outdoor in-situ assessment (n= 22). The outdoor in-situ assessment involved the painting of a bus shelter and light poles at a public transit station over two night shifts. All isocyanate samples were below analytical detection. The analytical limits of detection for HDI monomer, HDI biuret, HDI isocyanurate, and HDI uretdione were 0.005, 0.84, 0.87, and 0.88 µg, respectively. The finding that isocyanate concentrations were below detection is attributed to the use of paint roller and brush which minimize paint aerosolization and the paint formulation itself which contained <1% of volatile HDI monomer.","PeriodicalId":342592,"journal":{"name":"The Annals of occupational hygiene","volume":"8 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132362498","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
M. Friesen, D. Wheeler, R. Vermeulen, Sarah J. Locke, D. Zaebst, Stella Koutros, A. Pronk, J. Colt, D. Baris, M. Karagas, N. Malats, M. Schwenn, Alison Johnson, Karla Armenti, N. Rothman, P. Stewart, M. Kogevinas, D. Silverman
OBJECTIVES To efficiently and reproducibly assess occupational diesel exhaust exposure in a Spanish case-control study, we examined the utility of applying decision rules that had been extracted from expert estimates and questionnaire response patterns using classification tree (CT) models from a similar US study. METHODS First, previously extracted CT decision rules were used to obtain initial ordinal (0-3) estimates of the probability, intensity, and frequency of occupational exposure to diesel exhaust for the 10 182 jobs reported in a Spanish case-control study of bladder cancer. Second, two experts reviewed the CT estimates for 350 jobs randomly selected from strata based on each CT rule's agreement with the expert ratings in the original study [agreement rate, from 0 (no agreement) to 1 (perfect agreement)]. Their agreement with each other and with the CT estimates was calculated using weighted kappa (κ w) and guided our choice of jobs for subsequent expert review. Third, an expert review comprised all jobs with lower confidence (low-to-moderate agreement rates or discordant assignments, n = 931) and a subset of jobs with a moderate to high CT probability rating and with moderately high agreement rates (n = 511). Logistic regression was used to examine the likelihood that an expert provided a different estimate than the CT estimate based on the CT rule agreement rates, the CT ordinal rating, and the availability of a module with diesel-related questions. RESULTS Agreement between estimates made by two experts and between estimates made by each of the experts and the CT estimates was very high for jobs with estimates that were determined by rules with high CT agreement rates (κ w: 0.81-0.90). For jobs with estimates based on rules with lower agreement rates, moderate agreement was observed between the two experts (κ w: 0.42-0.67) and poor-to-moderate agreement was observed between the experts and the CT estimates (κ w: 0.09-0.57). In total, the expert review of 1442 jobs changed 156 probability estimates, 128 intensity estimates, and 614 frequency estimates. The expert was more likely to provide a different estimate when the CT rule agreement rate was <0.8, when the CT ordinal ratings were low to moderate, or when a module with diesel questions was available. CONCLUSIONS Our reliability assessment provided important insight into where to prioritize additional expert review; as a result, only 14% of the jobs underwent expert review, substantially reducing the exposure assessment burden. Overall, we found that we could efficiently, reproducibly, and reliably apply CT decision rules from one study to assess exposure in another study.
{"title":"Combining Decision Rules from Classification Tree Models and Expert Assessment to Estimate Occupational Exposure to Diesel Exhaust for a Case-Control Study.","authors":"M. Friesen, D. Wheeler, R. Vermeulen, Sarah J. Locke, D. Zaebst, Stella Koutros, A. Pronk, J. Colt, D. Baris, M. Karagas, N. Malats, M. Schwenn, Alison Johnson, Karla Armenti, N. Rothman, P. Stewart, M. Kogevinas, D. Silverman","doi":"10.1093/annhyg/mev095","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/annhyg/mev095","url":null,"abstract":"OBJECTIVES\u0000To efficiently and reproducibly assess occupational diesel exhaust exposure in a Spanish case-control study, we examined the utility of applying decision rules that had been extracted from expert estimates and questionnaire response patterns using classification tree (CT) models from a similar US study.\u0000\u0000\u0000METHODS\u0000First, previously extracted CT decision rules were used to obtain initial ordinal (0-3) estimates of the probability, intensity, and frequency of occupational exposure to diesel exhaust for the 10 182 jobs reported in a Spanish case-control study of bladder cancer. Second, two experts reviewed the CT estimates for 350 jobs randomly selected from strata based on each CT rule's agreement with the expert ratings in the original study [agreement rate, from 0 (no agreement) to 1 (perfect agreement)]. Their agreement with each other and with the CT estimates was calculated using weighted kappa (κ w) and guided our choice of jobs for subsequent expert review. Third, an expert review comprised all jobs with lower confidence (low-to-moderate agreement rates or discordant assignments, n = 931) and a subset of jobs with a moderate to high CT probability rating and with moderately high agreement rates (n = 511). Logistic regression was used to examine the likelihood that an expert provided a different estimate than the CT estimate based on the CT rule agreement rates, the CT ordinal rating, and the availability of a module with diesel-related questions.\u0000\u0000\u0000RESULTS\u0000Agreement between estimates made by two experts and between estimates made by each of the experts and the CT estimates was very high for jobs with estimates that were determined by rules with high CT agreement rates (κ w: 0.81-0.90). For jobs with estimates based on rules with lower agreement rates, moderate agreement was observed between the two experts (κ w: 0.42-0.67) and poor-to-moderate agreement was observed between the experts and the CT estimates (κ w: 0.09-0.57). In total, the expert review of 1442 jobs changed 156 probability estimates, 128 intensity estimates, and 614 frequency estimates. The expert was more likely to provide a different estimate when the CT rule agreement rate was <0.8, when the CT ordinal ratings were low to moderate, or when a module with diesel questions was available.\u0000\u0000\u0000CONCLUSIONS\u0000Our reliability assessment provided important insight into where to prioritize additional expert review; as a result, only 14% of the jobs underwent expert review, substantially reducing the exposure assessment burden. Overall, we found that we could efficiently, reproducibly, and reliably apply CT decision rules from one study to assess exposure in another study.","PeriodicalId":342592,"journal":{"name":"The Annals of occupational hygiene","volume":"9 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124325780","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
R. Neitzel, Rachel N. Long, Kan Sun, S. Sayler, Terry von Thaden
INTRODUCTION Firefighters have high rate of injuries and illnesses, as well as exposures to high levels of noise. This study explored the relationship between noise exposure and injury among firefighters. METHODS We recruited firefighters undergoing vehicle extrication and structural collapse emergency response training at a highly realistic training facility. Demographics, health status, body mass index (BMI), and history of serious injuries (i.e. injuries requiring first aid treatment, treatment in a medical clinic or office, or treatment at a hospital) were assessed at baseline, and daily activities, injury events, and near misses were assessed daily via surveys. Participants' noise exposures were monitored for one 24-h period using noise dosimeters. We used a mixed-effects logistic regression model to estimate the odds of injury events and near misses associated with noise exposure as an independent variable. RESULTS Of 56 subjects, 20 (36%) reported that they had ever suffered a serious injury during firefighting activities, and 9 (16%) reported a serious injury within the past year. We estimated rates of 6.6 lifetime serious injuries per 100 FTE 16.1 serious injuries per 100 FTE within the past year. Our models indicated a significant increase in injury events and near misses among those with higher BMI, and as well as a dose-response relationship between near misses/injuries and increasing noise levels. Noise levels >90 dBA in the 30 min prior to time of injury or near miss were associated with substantially increased odds ratios for injury or near miss. Our models further indicated that perceived job demands were significantly associated with increased risk of injury or near miss. CONCLUSION Our results suggest that noise exposures may need to be incorporated into injury prevention programs for firefighters to reduce injuries among this high-risk occupational group.
{"title":"Injury Risk and Noise Exposure in Firefighter Training Operations.","authors":"R. Neitzel, Rachel N. Long, Kan Sun, S. Sayler, Terry von Thaden","doi":"10.1093/annhyg/mev088","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/annhyg/mev088","url":null,"abstract":"INTRODUCTION\u0000Firefighters have high rate of injuries and illnesses, as well as exposures to high levels of noise. This study explored the relationship between noise exposure and injury among firefighters.\u0000\u0000\u0000METHODS\u0000We recruited firefighters undergoing vehicle extrication and structural collapse emergency response training at a highly realistic training facility. Demographics, health status, body mass index (BMI), and history of serious injuries (i.e. injuries requiring first aid treatment, treatment in a medical clinic or office, or treatment at a hospital) were assessed at baseline, and daily activities, injury events, and near misses were assessed daily via surveys. Participants' noise exposures were monitored for one 24-h period using noise dosimeters. We used a mixed-effects logistic regression model to estimate the odds of injury events and near misses associated with noise exposure as an independent variable.\u0000\u0000\u0000RESULTS\u0000Of 56 subjects, 20 (36%) reported that they had ever suffered a serious injury during firefighting activities, and 9 (16%) reported a serious injury within the past year. We estimated rates of 6.6 lifetime serious injuries per 100 FTE 16.1 serious injuries per 100 FTE within the past year. Our models indicated a significant increase in injury events and near misses among those with higher BMI, and as well as a dose-response relationship between near misses/injuries and increasing noise levels. Noise levels >90 dBA in the 30 min prior to time of injury or near miss were associated with substantially increased odds ratios for injury or near miss. Our models further indicated that perceived job demands were significantly associated with increased risk of injury or near miss.\u0000\u0000\u0000CONCLUSION\u0000Our results suggest that noise exposures may need to be incorporated into injury prevention programs for firefighters to reduce injuries among this high-risk occupational group.","PeriodicalId":342592,"journal":{"name":"The Annals of occupational hygiene","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115800767","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
S. Peters, Svein C van Oyen, H. Alfonso, L. Fritschi, N. de Klerk, A. Reid, P. Franklin, L. Gordon, G. Benke, A. Musk
{"title":"Response to Kottek and Kilpatrick, 'Estimating Occupational Exposure to Asbestos in Australia'.","authors":"S. Peters, Svein C van Oyen, H. Alfonso, L. Fritschi, N. de Klerk, A. Reid, P. Franklin, L. Gordon, G. Benke, A. Musk","doi":"10.1093/annhyg/mew010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/annhyg/mew010","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":342592,"journal":{"name":"The Annals of occupational hygiene","volume":"2238 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130200535","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
PURPOSE To assess the effectiveness of local exhaust ventilation to control respirable crystalline silica exposures to acceptable levels during concrete dowel drilling. APPROACH Personal breathing zone samples for respirable dust and crystalline silica were collected while laborers drilled holes 3.5 cm diameter by 36 cm deep in a concrete slab using a single-drill slab-riding dowel drill equipped with local exhaust ventilation. Data were collected on air flow, weather, and productivity. RESULTS All respirable dust samples were below the 90 µg detection limit which, when combined with the largest sample volume, resulted in a minimum detectable concentration of 0.31 mg m(-3). This occurred in a 32-min sample collected when 27 holes were drilled. Quartz was only detected in one air sample; 0.09 mg m(-3) of quartz was found on an 8-min sample collected during a drill maintenance task. The minimum detectable concentration for quartz in personal air samples collected while drilling was performed was 0.02 mg m(-3). The average number of holes drilled during each drilling sample was 23. Over the course of the 2-day study, air flow measured at the dust collector decreased from 2.2 to 1.7 m(3) s(-1). CONCLUSIONS The dust control performed well under the conditions of this test. The initial duct velocity with a clean filter was sufficient to prevent settling, but gradually fell below the recommended value to prevent dust from settling in the duct. The practice of raising the drill between each hole may have prevented the dust from settling in the duct. A slightly higher flow rate and an improved duct design would prevent settling without regard to the position of the drill.
{"title":"Evaluation of a Dust Control for a Small Slab-Riding Dowel Drill for Concrete Pavement.","authors":"A. Echt, K. Mead","doi":"10.1093/annhyg/mev099","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/annhyg/mev099","url":null,"abstract":"PURPOSE\u0000To assess the effectiveness of local exhaust ventilation to control respirable crystalline silica exposures to acceptable levels during concrete dowel drilling.\u0000\u0000\u0000APPROACH\u0000Personal breathing zone samples for respirable dust and crystalline silica were collected while laborers drilled holes 3.5 cm diameter by 36 cm deep in a concrete slab using a single-drill slab-riding dowel drill equipped with local exhaust ventilation. Data were collected on air flow, weather, and productivity.\u0000\u0000\u0000RESULTS\u0000All respirable dust samples were below the 90 µg detection limit which, when combined with the largest sample volume, resulted in a minimum detectable concentration of 0.31 mg m(-3). This occurred in a 32-min sample collected when 27 holes were drilled. Quartz was only detected in one air sample; 0.09 mg m(-3) of quartz was found on an 8-min sample collected during a drill maintenance task. The minimum detectable concentration for quartz in personal air samples collected while drilling was performed was 0.02 mg m(-3). The average number of holes drilled during each drilling sample was 23. Over the course of the 2-day study, air flow measured at the dust collector decreased from 2.2 to 1.7 m(3) s(-1).\u0000\u0000\u0000CONCLUSIONS\u0000The dust control performed well under the conditions of this test. The initial duct velocity with a clean filter was sufficient to prevent settling, but gradually fell below the recommended value to prevent dust from settling in the duct. The practice of raising the drill between each hole may have prevented the dust from settling in the duct. A slightly higher flow rate and an improved duct design would prevent settling without regard to the position of the drill.","PeriodicalId":342592,"journal":{"name":"The Annals of occupational hygiene","volume":"32 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125372845","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
T. McDowell, D. Welcome, C. Warren, Xueyan S. Xu, R. Dong
Mechanical arm systems are commonly used to support powered hand tools to alleviate ergonomic stressors related to the development of workplace musculoskeletal disorders. However, the use of these systems can increase exposure times to other potentially harmful agents such as hand-transmitted vibration. To examine how these tool support systems affect tool vibration, the primary objectives of this study were to characterize the vibration emissions of typical portable pneumatic grinders used for surface grinding with and without a mechanical arm support system at a workplace and to estimate the potential risk of the increased vibration exposure time afforded by the use of these mechanical arm systems. This study also developed a laboratory-based simulated grinding task based on the ISO 28927-1 (2009) standard for assessing grinder vibrations; the simulated grinding vibrations were compared with those measured during actual workplace grinder operations. The results of this study demonstrate that use of the mechanical arm may provide a health benefit by reducing the forces required to lift and maneuver the tools and by decreasing hand-transmitted vibration exposure. However, the arm does not substantially change the basic characteristics of grinder vibration spectra. The mechanical arm reduced the average frequency-weighted acceleration by about 24% in the workplace and by about 7% in the laboratory. Because use of the mechanical arm system can increase daily time-on-task by 50% or more, the use of such systems may actually increase daily time-weighted hand-transmitted vibration exposures in some cases. The laboratory acceleration measurements were substantially lower than the workplace measurements, and the laboratory tool rankings based on acceleration were considerably different than those from the workplace. Thus, it is doubtful that ISO 28927-1 is useful for estimating workplace grinder vibration exposures or for predicting workplace grinder acceleration rank orders.
{"title":"The Effect of a Mechanical Arm System on Portable Grinder Vibration Emissions.","authors":"T. McDowell, D. Welcome, C. Warren, Xueyan S. Xu, R. Dong","doi":"10.1093/annhyg/mev084","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/annhyg/mev084","url":null,"abstract":"Mechanical arm systems are commonly used to support powered hand tools to alleviate ergonomic stressors related to the development of workplace musculoskeletal disorders. However, the use of these systems can increase exposure times to other potentially harmful agents such as hand-transmitted vibration. To examine how these tool support systems affect tool vibration, the primary objectives of this study were to characterize the vibration emissions of typical portable pneumatic grinders used for surface grinding with and without a mechanical arm support system at a workplace and to estimate the potential risk of the increased vibration exposure time afforded by the use of these mechanical arm systems. This study also developed a laboratory-based simulated grinding task based on the ISO 28927-1 (2009) standard for assessing grinder vibrations; the simulated grinding vibrations were compared with those measured during actual workplace grinder operations. The results of this study demonstrate that use of the mechanical arm may provide a health benefit by reducing the forces required to lift and maneuver the tools and by decreasing hand-transmitted vibration exposure. However, the arm does not substantially change the basic characteristics of grinder vibration spectra. The mechanical arm reduced the average frequency-weighted acceleration by about 24% in the workplace and by about 7% in the laboratory. Because use of the mechanical arm system can increase daily time-on-task by 50% or more, the use of such systems may actually increase daily time-weighted hand-transmitted vibration exposures in some cases. The laboratory acceleration measurements were substantially lower than the workplace measurements, and the laboratory tool rankings based on acceleration were considerably different than those from the workplace. Thus, it is doubtful that ISO 28927-1 is useful for estimating workplace grinder vibration exposures or for predicting workplace grinder acceleration rank orders.","PeriodicalId":342592,"journal":{"name":"The Annals of occupational hygiene","volume":"88 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121207607","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to compare thermal desorption tubes and stainless steel canisters for measuring volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted from petrochemical factories. METHODS Twelve petrochemical factories in the Mailiao Industrial Complex were recruited for conducting the measurements of VOCs. Thermal desorption tubes and 6-l specially prepared stainless steel canisters were used to simultaneously perform active sampling of environmental air samples. The sampling time of the environmental air samples was set up on 6 h close to a full work shift of the workers. A total of 94 pairwise air samples were collected by using the thermal adsorption tubes and stainless steel canisters in these 12 factories in the petrochemical industrial complex. To maximize the number of comparative data points, all the measurements from all the factories in different sampling times were lumped together to perform a linear regression analysis for each selected VOC. Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient was used to examine the correlation between the pairwise measurements of these two sampling methods. A paired t-test was also performed to examine whether the difference in the concentrations of each selected VOC measured by the two methods was statistically significant. RESULTS The correlation coefficients of seven compounds, including acetone, n-hexane, benzene, toluene, 1,2-dichloroethane, 1,3-butadiene, and styrene were >0.80 indicating the two sampling methods for these VOCs' measurements had high consistency. The paired t-tests for the measurements of n-hexane, benzene, m/p-xylene, o-xylene, 1,2-dichloroethane, and 1,3-butadiene showed statistically significant difference (P-value < 0.05). This indicated that the two sampling methods had various degrees of systematic errors. Looking at the results of six chemicals and these systematic errors probably resulted from the differences of the detection limits in the two sampling methods for these VOCs. CONCLUSIONS The comparison between the concentrations of each of the 10 selected VOCs measured by the two sampling methods indicted that the thermal desorption tubes provided high accuracy and precision measurements for acetone, benzene, and 1,3-butadiene. The accuracy and precision of using the thermal desorption tubes for measuring the VOCs can be improved due to new developments in sorbent materials, multi-sorbent designs, and thermal desorption instrumentation. More applications of thermal desorption tubes for measuring occupational and environmental hazardous agents can be anticipated.
{"title":"Comparison between Thermal Desorption Tubes and Stainless Steel Canisters Used for Measuring Volatile Organic Compounds in Petrochemical Factories.","authors":"Cheng-Ping Chang, T. Lin, Yu-Wen Lin, Yijin Hua, Wei-Ming Chu, Tzu-Yu Lin, Yi-Wen Lin, Jyun-De Wu","doi":"10.1093/annhyg/mev078","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/annhyg/mev078","url":null,"abstract":"OBJECTIVE\u0000The purpose of this study was to compare thermal desorption tubes and stainless steel canisters for measuring volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted from petrochemical factories.\u0000\u0000\u0000METHODS\u0000Twelve petrochemical factories in the Mailiao Industrial Complex were recruited for conducting the measurements of VOCs. Thermal desorption tubes and 6-l specially prepared stainless steel canisters were used to simultaneously perform active sampling of environmental air samples. The sampling time of the environmental air samples was set up on 6 h close to a full work shift of the workers. A total of 94 pairwise air samples were collected by using the thermal adsorption tubes and stainless steel canisters in these 12 factories in the petrochemical industrial complex. To maximize the number of comparative data points, all the measurements from all the factories in different sampling times were lumped together to perform a linear regression analysis for each selected VOC. Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient was used to examine the correlation between the pairwise measurements of these two sampling methods. A paired t-test was also performed to examine whether the difference in the concentrations of each selected VOC measured by the two methods was statistically significant.\u0000\u0000\u0000RESULTS\u0000The correlation coefficients of seven compounds, including acetone, n-hexane, benzene, toluene, 1,2-dichloroethane, 1,3-butadiene, and styrene were >0.80 indicating the two sampling methods for these VOCs' measurements had high consistency. The paired t-tests for the measurements of n-hexane, benzene, m/p-xylene, o-xylene, 1,2-dichloroethane, and 1,3-butadiene showed statistically significant difference (P-value < 0.05). This indicated that the two sampling methods had various degrees of systematic errors. Looking at the results of six chemicals and these systematic errors probably resulted from the differences of the detection limits in the two sampling methods for these VOCs.\u0000\u0000\u0000CONCLUSIONS\u0000The comparison between the concentrations of each of the 10 selected VOCs measured by the two sampling methods indicted that the thermal desorption tubes provided high accuracy and precision measurements for acetone, benzene, and 1,3-butadiene. The accuracy and precision of using the thermal desorption tubes for measuring the VOCs can be improved due to new developments in sorbent materials, multi-sorbent designs, and thermal desorption instrumentation. More applications of thermal desorption tubes for measuring occupational and environmental hazardous agents can be anticipated.","PeriodicalId":342592,"journal":{"name":"The Annals of occupational hygiene","volume":"27 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131696596","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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