Peter Morfeld1, Dirk Taeger, Heike Mitura, Axel Bosch, Adrian Nordone, Reinhard Vormberg, Robert McCunney, Rolf Merget. 1. From the Institute for Occupational Epidemiology and Risk Assessment of Evonik Industries AG (Mr Morfeld), Essen, Germany; Institute and Policlinic for Occupational Medicine (Mr Morfeld), Environmental Medicine and Prevention Research, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany; Institute for Prevention and Occupational Medicine of the German Social Accident Insurance (Mr Taeger and Mr Merget), Institute of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum (IPA), Bochum, Germany; AQura GmbH (Mr Mitura), Hanau, Germany; Wacker Chemie AG (Mr Bosch), Burghausen, Germany; Cabot Corporation (Mr Nordone), Boston, Mass; Evonik Industries (Mr Vormberg), Hanau, Germany; and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Mr McCunney), Boston, Mass.
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: Synthetic amorphous silicas (SASs) are nanostructured polymorphs of silicon dioxide. We compared two different exposure assessments. METHODS: This study estimated cumulative exposure to inhalable SAS dust in 484 male workers from five German SAS-producing plants. Two procedures (P1 and P2) were applied. P1 was based on an expert assessment. P2 was a multiple exposure assessment (15 scenarios) anchored by a recent measurement series (1375 personal measurements of inhalable SAS dust concentration) and used expert assessments. RESULTS: Cumulative exposure estimates for P1 averaged 56.9 mg/m·yrs (range, 0.1 to 419); for a selected P2 scenario, the mean was 31.8 mg/m·yrs (range, 0.4 to 480), (P < 0.0001). Averages varied between the 15 P2-scenarios from 12.6 to 109.6 mg/m·yrs. Different time trends for SAS concentrations were observed. CONCLUSIONS: Both approaches suffer from considerable uncertainties that need to be considered in epidemiological studies.
OBJECTIVES: Synthetic amorphous silicas (SASs) are nanostructured polymorphs of silicon dioxide. We compared two different exposure assessments. METHODS: This study estimated cumulative exposure to inhalable SAS dust in 484 male workers from five German SAS-producing plants. Two procedures (P1 and P2) were applied. P1 was based on an expert assessment. P2 was a multiple exposure assessment (15 scenarios) anchored by a recent measurement series (1375 personal measurements of inhalable SAS dust concentration) and used expert assessments. RESULTS: Cumulative exposure estimates for P1 averaged 56.9 mg/m·yrs (range, 0.1 to 419); for a selected P2 scenario, the mean was 31.8 mg/m·yrs (range, 0.4 to 480), (P < 0.0001). Averages varied between the 15 P2-scenarios from 12.6 to 109.6 mg/m·yrs. Different time trends for SAS concentrations were observed. CONCLUSIONS: Both approaches suffer from considerable uncertainties that need to be considered in epidemiological studies.