Risk management strategy to increase the safety of workers in the nanomaterials industry.
In recent years, many engineered nanomaterials (NMs) have been produced, but increasing research has revealed that these may have toxicities far greater than conventional materials and cause significant adverse health effects. At present, there is insufficient data to determine the permissible concentrations of NMs in the workplace. There is also a lack of toxicity data and environmental monitoring results relating to complete health risk assessment. In view of this, we believe that workers in the NMs industry should be provided with simple and practical risk management strategy to ensure occupational health and safety. In this study, we developed a risk management strategy based on the precautionary risk management (PRM). The risk of the engineered NMs manufacturing plants can be divided into three levels based on aspect identification, solubility tests, dermal absorption, and cytotoxic analyses. The risk management strategies include aspects relating to technology control, engineering control, personal protective equipment, and monitoring of the working environment for each level. Here we report the first case in which a simple and practical risk management strategy applying in specific engineered NMs manufacturing plants. We are confident that our risk management strategy can be effectively reduced engineered NM industries risks for workers.
Department of Health Risk Management, China Medical University, Taichung 40402, Taiwan, ROC. lingmp@mail.cmu.edu.tw
Min-Pei
MP
Ling
Wei-Chao
WC
Lin
Chia-Chyuan
CC
Liu
Yi-Shiao
YS
Huang
Miao-Ju
MJ
Chueh
Tung-Sheng
TS
Shih
D000818:Animals; D002460:Cell Line; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000187:drug effects; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000032:analysis / Q000145:classification* / Q000633:toxicity; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon / Q000032:analysis / Q000633:toxicity; D016273:Occupational Exposure / Q000517:prevention & control*; D010316:Particle Size; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods*; D012834:Silver / Q000032:analysis / Q000633:toxicity; D012869:Skin Absorption / Q000187:drug effects; D012995:Solubility; D017132:Workplace; D015034:Zinc Oxide / Q000032:analysis / Q000633:toxicity
D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon; D012834:Silver; D015034:Zinc Oxide