Assessing potential health risks from multi-exposure to chemicals in U.S. workplaces: findings from the OSHA database
ORCID
Philippe Sarazin : 0009-0003-7326-5640
France Labrèche : 0000-0001-8722-0433
Vikki Ho : 0000-0002-0724-7917
Maude Pomerleau : 0009-0007-7193-9882
Type de document
Résumés de conférences
Année de publication
2024
Langue
Anglais
Titre de la revue
Annals of Work Exposures and Health
Résumé
Introduction
The combined effects of occupational exposure to multiple chemicals on health can be substantial. However, the most prevalent multi-exposure situations and their toxic effects remain understudied. We assessed the health risks from multi-exposure to chemicals in U.S. workplaces using the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) measurement database.
Methods
We analysed personal air measurements for the period 1971-2021 summarized by workplace situation (WS), corresponding to measurements taken for the same job title, within a company, within a year. We calculated hazard quotients (HQ) by dividing the agents’ concentrations by their ACGIH® threshold limit value. We calculated the mixtures’ hazard indices (HI) by summing the HQs of agents by combination of WS and toxicological class (n=24) using the MiXie tool, which identifies classes of toxic effects for >700 chemicals.
Results
We extracted 609,233 measurements of 206 chemicals from 162,473 WSs. Workers in 58,252 WSs were exposed to ≥2 agents, of which 21,563 had an HI>1, indicating overexposure for at least one toxicological class. Toxicological classes with the highest HIs among multi-exposed WSs were lower airway damage (median 0.41; interquartile interval 0.05-1.9; percentage of overexposed WSs 35%), ototoxicity (0.28; 0.04-1.1; 26%) and central nervous system (CNS) damage (0.26; 0.02-1.2; 28%). For these three classes respectively, the most frequent multi-exposures leading to high values of HI were manganese-iron oxides, toluene-xylene and manganese-lead.
Conclusions
Although the OSHA database does not necessarily represent a random sample of U.S. workplaces, our approach provides insights into the health risks of occupational exposures to prevalent chemical mixtures.
Mots-clés
Évaluation de l'exposition, Exposure evaluation, Produit chimique, Chemical product, Risque chimique, Chemical hazard, Mélange, Mixture
Numéro de projet IRSST
2018-0018
Citation recommandée
Sarazin, P., Sauvé, J.-F., Labrèche, F., Ho, V., Pomerleau, M., Bosson-Rieutort, D. et Lavoué, J. (2024). Assessing potential health risks from multi-exposure to chemicals in U.S. workplaces: Findings from the OSHA database. Annals of Work Exposures and Health, 68(Suppl. 1), article wxae035. https://doi.org/10.1093/annweh/wxae035.060