Occupational dermal exposure to nanoparticles and nano-enabled products: Part 2, exploration of exposure processes and methods of assessment.
Over the past decade, the primary focus of nanotoxicology and nanoenvironmental health and safety efforts has been largely on inhalation exposure to engineered nanomaterials, at the production stage, and much less on considering risks along the life cycle of nano-enabled products. Dermal exposure to nanomaterials and its health impact has been studied to a much lesser extent, and mostly in the context of intentional exposure to nano-enabled products such as in nanomedicine, cosmetics and personal care products. How concerning is dermal exposure to such nanoparticles in the context of occupational exposures? When and how should we measure it? In the first of a series of two papers (Larese Filon et al., 2016), we focused our attention on identifying conditions or situations, i.e. a combination of nanoparticle physico-chemical properties, skin barrier integrity, and occupations with high prevalence of skin disease, which deserve further investigation. This second paper focuses on the broad question of dermal exposure assessment to nanoparticles and attempts to give an overview of the mechanisms of occupational dermal exposure to nanoparticles and nano-enabled products and explores feasibility and adequacy of various methods of quantifying dermal exposure to NOAA. We provide here a conceptual framework for screening, prioritization, and assessment of dermal exposure to NOAA in occupational settings, and integrate it into a proposed framework for risk assessment.
TNO Risk Analysis for Products in Development, Zeist, The Netherlands; School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, 2193 Johannesburg, South Africa. Electronic address: derk.brouwer@wits.ac.za.
Derk H
DH
Brouwer
TNO Risk Analysis for Products in Development, Zeist, The Netherlands.
Suzanne
S
Spaan
Health and Safety Laboratory, Buxton, UK.
Martin
M
Roff
Institute of Occupational Medicine, Edinburgh, UK.
Anne
A
Sleeuwenhoek
TNO Risk Analysis for Products in Development, Zeist, The Netherlands.
Ilse
I
Tuinman
TNO Risk Analysis for Products in Development, Zeist, The Netherlands.
Henk
H
Goede
TNO Risk Analysis for Products in Development, Zeist, The Netherlands.
Birgit
B
van Duuren-Stuurman
University of Trieste, Clinical Unit of Occupational Medicine, Trieste, Italy.
Francesca Larese
FL
Filon
University of Massachusetts Lowell, Work Environment, and Biomedical Engineering & Biotechnology program, Lowell, MA 01854, USA.
Dhimiter
D
Bello
Institute of Occupational Medicine, Edinburgh, UK; Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh, UK.
John W
JW
Cherrie
D000818:Animals; D009783:Dermatitis, Occupational / Q000209:etiology; D004435:Eating; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000032:analysis; D016273:Occupational Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000032:analysis; D012869:Skin Absorption
Conceptual framework; Exposure potential; Guidance risk assessment; Measurement method; Nanoparticle