Range-finding risk assessment of inhalation exposure to nanodiamonds in a laboratory environment.
This study considers fundamental methods in occupational risk assessment of exposure to airborne engineered nanomaterials. We discuss characterization of particle emissions, exposure assessment, hazard assessment with in vitro studies, and risk range characterization using calculated inhaled doses and dose-response translated to humans from in vitro studies. Here, the methods were utilized to assess workers' risk range of inhalation exposure to nanodiamonds (NDs) during handling and sieving of ND powder. NDs were agglomerated to over 500 nm particles, and mean exposure levels of different work tasks varied from 0.24 to 4.96 µg·m(-3) (0.08 to 0.74 cm(-3)). In vitro-experiments suggested that ND exposure may cause a risk for activation of inflammatory cascade. However, risk range characterization based on in vitro dose-response was not performed because accurate assessment of delivered (settled) dose on the cells was not possible. Comparison of ND exposure with common pollutants revealed that ND exposure was below 5 μg·m(-3), which is one of the proposed exposure limits for diesel particulate matter, and the workers' calculated dose of NDs during the measurement day was 74 ng which corresponded to 0.02% of the modeled daily (24 h) dose of submicrometer urban air particles.
Nanosafety Research Centre, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Topeliuksenkatu 41 a A, FI-00250 Helsinki, Finland. joonas.koivisto@ttl.fi.
Antti J
AJ
Koivisto
Nanosafety Research Centre, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Topeliuksenkatu 41 a A, FI-00250 Helsinki, Finland. jaana.palomaki@tukes.fi.
Jaana E
JE
Palomäki
Nanosafety Research Centre, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Topeliuksenkatu 41 a A, FI-00250 Helsinki, Finland. anna-kaisa.viitanen@ttl.fi.
Anna-Kaisa
AK
Viitanen
Nanosafety Research Centre, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Topeliuksenkatu 41 a A, FI-00250 Helsinki, Finland. kirsi.siivola@ttl.fi.
Kirsi M
KM
Siivola
National Research Centre for the Working Environment, Lersø Parkallé 105, Copenhagen DK-2100, Denmark. ikk@arbejdsmiljoforskning.dk.
Ismo K
IK
Koponen
Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Fenghui Road, Xi'an 710075, China. yumingzhou1738@yahoo.com.
Mingzhou
M
Yu
Nanosafety Research Centre, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Topeliuksenkatu 41 a A, FI-00250 Helsinki, Finland. tomi.kanerva@ttl.fi.
Tomi S
TS
Kanerva
Nanosafety Research Centre, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Topeliuksenkatu 41 a A, FI-00250 Helsinki, Finland. hannu.norppa@ttl.fi.
Hannu
H
Norppa
Nanosafety Research Centre, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Topeliuksenkatu 41 a A, FI-00250 Helsinki, Finland. harri.alenius@ttl.fi.
Harri T
HT
Alenius
Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, The University of Jordan, Amman JO-11942, Jordan. tareq.hussein@helsinki.fi.
Tareq
T
Hussein
Nanosafety Research Centre, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Topeliuksenkatu 41 a A, FI-00250 Helsinki, Finland. kirsi.siivola@ttl.fi.
Kai M
KM
Savolainen
Department of Physics, University of Helsinki, Gustaf Hällströmin Katu 2, P.O. Box 64, Helsinki FI-00014, Finland. kaarle.hameri@helsinki.fi.
Kaarle J
KJ
Hämeri
D000395:Air Pollutants, Occupational / Q000032:analysis* / Q000633:toxicity; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000187:drug effects; D016207:Cytokines / Q000378:metabolism; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D006801:Humans; D019570:Inhalation Exposure; D058612:Nanodiamonds / Q000032:analysis* / Q000633:toxicity; D016273:Occupational Exposure; D018570:Risk Assessment
D000395:Air Pollutants, Occupational; D016207:Cytokines; D058612:Nanodiamonds