Exposure incidents

Incident investigation Industrial hygiene exposure incidents and alleged work-related illness can be covered by an incident investigation program... 

Berry JR, McMurray BJ, Jech JJ, et al. 1983. 1976 Hanford americium exposure incident Decontamination and treatment facility. Health Phys 45(4) 883-892. 

Hampton JC. 1983. 1976 Hanford americium exposure incident Histologic and autoradiographic... 

Several reports identified nonlethal effects in humans acutely exposed to arsine. These reports, however, lacked definitive exposure data but verified hematologic disorders leading to renal failure as critical effects of arsine exposure. Bulmer et al. (1940) (as cited in Elkins 1959) reconstructed an exposure incident at a gold extraction facility and estimated that subchronic (up to 8 mon) exposure to 0.12 ppm arsine resulted in jaundice and anemia (see Section 2.2.1). The lack of definitive exposure data for humans necessitates the use of animal data for quantitative estimation of AEGL values. Derivation of AEGL-2 values based upon limited human data (Flury and Zernik 1931) was considered but rejected because the data were poorly documented and inconsistent with other data showing lethality at lower cumulative exposures. 

This paper will focus on methods that are based on the analysis of long-lived protein adducts of CW agents which are detectable weeks or even months after exposure. Examples of real exposure incidents will be described. 

An alternative way to look at the problem might be to ask the question, What initial fill fraction should be specified in the tank to avoid two-phase flow during a fire exposure incident No tested correlations are presently available to compute the height of a foam layer above the boiling liquid. 

Health Act (OSHA), which regulates workplace safety. In particular, pharmacists who perform laboratory tests that require finger sticks are at risk from exposure to blood-borne pathogens. Pharmacies who perform these tests should have a blood-borne pathogen exposure control plan (BPEPC) that describes who should be trained about the hazards of blood-borne exposure, precautions that need to be taken to prevent exposure, and what to do when an exposure incident occurs (Rosenthal, 2000). More information regarding OSHA and an example BPEPC can be found at the OSHA Web site (www.osha.gov). 

There are numerous variables related to the ways in which organisms are exposed to toxic substances. One of the most crucial of these, dose, is discussed in Section 6.5. Another important factor is the toxicant concentration, which may range from the pure substance (100%) down to a very dilute solution of a highly potent poison. Both the duration of exposure per exposure incident and the frequency of exposure are important. The rate of exposure, inversely related to the duration per exposure, and the total time period over which the organism is exposed are both important situational variables. The exposure site and route strongly affect toxicity. Toxic effects are largely the result of metabolic processes on substances that occur after exposure, and much of the remainder of this book deals with these kinds of processes. 

Figure 11 The spectral sensitivity of the xerographic gain of a 10 im single-layer aggregate photoreceptor measured with low-intensity continuous exposure incident on the positively charged surface at different fields.

Several studies (e.g., Newhouse and Berry 1976 Nicholson et al. 1982 Peto et al. 1982) indicate that the risk of mesothelioma from a given level of exposure to asbestos depends primarily upon the time elapsed since exposure (latency), with risk increasing exponentially with time after a lag period of about 10 years. Based on this, EPA (1986a) fit exposure-incidence data from four studies (Finkelstein 1983 Peto 1980 Peto et al. 1982 Seidman 1984) to the following equation ... 

Analysis of Blood Samples. Urinary metabolites undergo relatively rapid elimination from the body, whereas blood components offer biomarkers that have the potential to be used for verification of sulfur mustard exposure long after the exposure incident. Three different approaches have been used for blood biomarker analysis. The intact macromolecule such as protein or DNA with the sulfur mustard adducts still attached can be analyzed. To date, this approach has only been demonstrated for hemoglobin using in vitro experiments. For proteins, an alternate approach is to enzymatically digest them to produce a smaller peptide with the sulfur mustard adduct still attached. Methods of this type have been developed for both hemoglobin and albumin. A third approach has been to cleave the sulfur mustard adduct from the macromolecule and analyze in a fashion similar to that used for free metabolites found in the urine. The later two approaches have both been successfully used to verify human exposure of sulfur mustard. 

Techniques for first-aid responders and employees. Universal precautions, exposure control plans, exposure incidents, personal protection, and decontamination. 

Holden C Love Canal residents under stress. Science 208 1242-1244,1980 Hopwood DC, Guidotti TL Recall bias in exposed subjects following a toxic exposure incident. Arch Environ Health 43 234-237,1988 Houts PS, McDougall V Effects of informing workers of their health risks from exposure to toxic materials. Am J Ind Med 13 271-279, 1988 Johnson DM The phantom anesthetist of Mattoon a fieid study of mass hysteria. J Ahnorm Soc Psychol 40 175-186,1945... 

Selden BS Adolescent epidemic hysteria presenting as a mass casualty, toxic exposure incident. Ann Emerg Med 18 892-895, 1989... 

Brown WR 1976 Hanford americium exposure incident phychological [sic] aspects. Health Phys 45 867-871, 1983... 

Hopwood, D.G. and Guidotti, T.L., Recall bias in exposed subjects following a toxic exposure incident. Arch. Environ. Health, 43, 234, 1988. 

It is estimated that there are 3.8 million cases of occupational diseases due to exposure to chemicals in the world each year. Of these, acute pesticide poisoning accounts for about 3 million cases. About 220,ci00 of these are fatal. Over 90 % of exposure incidents and about 99% of deaths take place in the third world countries [13]. German Development expert reports on the careless use of pesticides, in Sri Lanka — there they spread DDT with bare hands, people are powdered white , On the Antilles island of Trinidad a total... 

The problem with treating dermal exposure is not so much how to treat a symptomatic casualty as whether to treat an asymptomatic person who has had agent on the skin. Medical personnel usually have little or no information about the exposure incident, because the casualty often does not know the duration or amount of exposure. 

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