Health risk, occupational

Like other proteins, enzymes are potential allergens. In addition, proteases may act as skin and eye irritants. However, during the production and handling of industrial enzymes, the occupational health risks entailed by these properties can be avoided by protective measures, and by the form in which... 

In the UK alone occupational health risks due to chemicals are illustrated by ... 

Oil Industry Advisory Committee (1996) Management of Occupational Health Risks in the Offshore Oil and Gas Industry, HSE, Bootle. 

EL = emissions level ERA = Environmental Protection Agency HSDB = Hazardous Substances Data Bank lARC = International Agency for Research on Cancer IRIS = Integrated Risk Information System NIOSH = National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health OEL = occupational exposure limit OSHA = Occupational Safety and Health Administration PEL = permissible exposure limit RAC = reference air concentration REL = recommended exposure limit RCRA = Resource Conservation and Recovery Act RfD = reference dose TLV = threshold limit value TWA = time-weighted average WHO = World Health Organization... 

Information on exposure levels is fundamental for the assessment and management of health risks related to occupational and environmental exposure to pesticides. Biological monitoring is a primary tool for exposure evaluation,... 

There is a growing need to better characterize the health risk related to occupational and environmental exposure to pesticides. Risk characterization is a basic step in the assessment and management of the health risks related to chemicals (Tordoir and Maroni, 1994). Evaluation of exposure, which may be performed through environmental and biological monitoring, is a fundamental component of risk assessment. Biomarkers are useful tools that may be used in risk assessment to confirm exposure or to quantify it by estimating the internal dose. Besides their use in risk assessment, biomarkers also represent a fundamental tool to improve the effectiveness of medical and epidemiological surveillance. 

The output of an exposure and risk assessment will usually describe the levels of exposure and quantity the population exposed for both humans and other biota, and will estimate the associated probabilities of the incidence of adverse health effects. Population exposure or risk, obtained by multiplying the individual (per capita) exposure or risk by the numbers exposed at each level of exposure, may also be a useful measure of impact. Various analyses can be performed on the results, for example, comparison of exposures in a particular geographic area against national average exposure levels. Likewise, for the same pollutant, environmental risks due to a particular industry might be compared against risks associated with occupational or household activities. In addition, the health risk of different substances could be compared for priority setting. 

For human health risk assessment, it is necessary to elaborate realistic scenarios. Knowledge of real scenarios where the contaminant is emitted to the environment will help to obtain information about the fate and transport of the contaminant once emitted to the environment and the route of exposure for the human beings living in this scenario of concern. There are different types of exposure, i.e., direct, indirect (as is the case of food contaminated by the air, water, or soil contaminated by the emission), occupational exposure, and consumer goods coming from outside the scenario of concern. Depending on the objective of the study, it will be necessary to consider in the exposure assessment one or more types of exposure. 

The studies involved determining appropriate environmental pathways that would result in exposure to humans, determining appropriate occupancy factors (number and distribution) within structures, characterizing the source term for each property, selecting an appropriate set of health risk coefficients, calculating health effects, and providing summary reports of potential health effects for each vicinity property. 

The following expressions were employed for health risk as a result of the radiation exposure incurred during occupancy of a property the cancer risk per individual for gamma and/or for radon daughter exposure the individuals percent increase in cancer risks relative to the respective, normal cancer risks and the number of projected excess cancer deaths due to the radiation exposure (external and internal) for the number of occupants at each property. 

Given the widespread use of JP-8 in the military and aviation industry, concern about occupational exposure of women of child-bearing age has emerged as this workforce continues to expand. Furthermore, accidental spills associated with pipelines or storage facilities can contaminate soil or water, posing unpredictable health risks to nearby residential areas. Taken together, these concerns provide adequate basis to investigate the developmental toxicity of JP-8. 

Studies using the inhalation route might be useful to determine the potential human health risk in populations that may be occupationally exposed to hexachloroethane vapors for long periods. Additional chronic oral studies may be useful to help further clarify the dose-response relationships and better characterize thresholds. Studies by the dermal route would not be useful until the rate and extent of absorption have been better characterized. 

The dangerous properties of acute toxicity, irritation, corrosivity, sensitisation, repeated-dose toxicity and CMR are evaluated in terms of their potential toxic effects to workers, consumers and man exposed indirectly via the environment, based on the use for each stage in the lifecycle of the substance from which exposure can occur. Risk assessment is also required if there are reasonable grounds for concern for potential hazardous properties, e.g., from positive in vitro mutagenicity tests or structural alerts. The risk assessment involves comparing the estimated occupational or consumer exposure levels with the exposure levels at which no adverse effects are anticipated. This may be a quantitative risk assessment, based on the ratio between the two values, or a qualitative evaluation. The principles of human health risk assessment are covered in detail by Illing (a.30) and more briefly in Chapter 7 of (73). 

Hydrocarbon based solvents have a valuable role in many industrial processes. However, a well-known hazard of many hydrocarbon solvents is their flammability, but they can also have damaging effects on the environment and harm human health. Emphasis is placed on the latter. Some of the ill health effects are described together with how solvents users can get information on these the UK approach to control, including the role of occupational exposure limits a comparison of UK limits with those in other EU Member States and finally a new approach taken by the UK Health Safety Executive to help companies control health risks. 6 refs. 

Wilkinson, G.S., Epidemiologic studies of nuclear and radiation workers an overview of what is known about health risks posed by the nuclear industry, Occupational Medicine, 6, 715, 1991. 

Lam CW, James JT, McCluskey R, Arepalli S, Hunter RL (2006) A review of carbon nanotube toxicity and assessment of potential occupational and environmental health risks. Crit Rev Toxicol 36 189-217. 

The Nordic Expert Group for Criteria Documentation of Health Risks from Chemicals (NEG) consisted of scientific experts from the five Nordic countries representing different fields of science, such as toxicology, occupational hygiene, and occupational medicine. The main task was to produce criteria documents (Figure 3.10) to be used by the regulatory authorities of the Nordic countries as the scientific basis for setting Occupational Exposure Limits (OELs) for chemical substances. 

Percivall Pott made one of the first observations of a health risk related to occupational exposure. In 1775, he noted that chimney sweeps had a higher incidence of cancer of the scrotum. A century later, in 1895, it was observed that workers in the aniline dye industry were more likely to develop bladder cancer. 

The current health risks associated with exposure to low-dose radiation are extrapolated from high-dose data taken from the Life Span Study of the Japanese atomic bomb survivors. Currently, a linear no threshold extrapolation is recommended. The numerous technical reports and scientific papers about the Japanese A-bomb survivors were widely interpreted as showing that the effects of occupational exposures to radiation would be too small to detect in epidemiological studies. However, questions about the reliability of the A-bomb results were presented by Stewart and Kneale [2]. Their Oxford Childhood Study observed that children whose in utero exposures were as little as 10 to 20 mSv had 40% more childhood leukemias than those who were not exposed. No similar effects are reported in the A-bomb data. Of course, the finding of no effect is not a compelling argument for or against a safe dose. 

To be fair, bureaucracies exhibit some rationality. The probability of exposure control is reduced as the cost per life saved rises. But the costs of many exposure limitations are much greater than the implicit market price for health risks as inferred from wage data in dangerous occupations. Because the costs of these extreme regulations are not paid by those who value exposure reduction the most, existing pollution controls are almost certainly inefficient. 

Prepolymeric HDI-BT paint formnlations, which generally contain 1% monomeric HDI, are now widely used for coatings applications, particularly in the automobile and airplane industries (Alexandersson et al. 1987 Karol 1986 Key-Schwartz 1992 Nielson et al. 1985 Rosenberg and Savolainen 1986 Rosenberg and Tuomi 1984). Consequently, many reported occupational exposures to HDI are actually exposures predominantly to HDI-BT (Karol 1986 Karol and Hauth 1982). Although isocyanate prepolymers are safer to use than the free monomers, primarily because of their lower vapor pressures, they can still pose a health risk to workers when inhaled in the aerosol form (Karol and Hauth 1982 Rosenberg and Tuomi 1984). There... 

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