title: Modeling the exposure functions of atmospheric polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon mixtures in occupational environments.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The health risk assessment associated with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) mixtures faces three main issues: the lack of knowledge regarding occupational exposure mixtures, the accurate chemical characterization and the estimation of cancer risks.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To describe industries in which PAH exposures are encountered and construct working context-exposure function matrices, to enable the estimation of both the PAH expected exposure level and chemical characteristic profile of workers based on their occupational sector and activity.
  
  
  METHODS
  Overall, 1729 PAH samplings from the Exporisq-HAP database (E-HAP) were used. An approach was developed to (i) organize E-HAP in terms of the most detailed unit of description of a job and (ii) structure and subdivide the organized E-HAP into groups of detailed industry units, with each group described by the distribution of concentrations of gaseous and particulate PAHs, which would result in working context-exposure function matrices. PAH exposures were described using two scales: phase (total particulate and gaseous PAH distribution concentrations) and congener (16 congener PAH distribution concentrations).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Nine industrial sectors were organized according to the exposure durations, short-term, mid-term and long-term into 5, 36 and 47 detailed industry units, which were structured, respectively, into 2, 4, and 7 groups for the phase scale and 2, 3, and 6 groups for the congener scale, corresponding to as much distinct distribution of concentrations of several PAHs. For the congener scale, which included groups that used products derived from coal, the correlations between the PAHs were strong; for groups that used products derived from petroleum, all PAHs in the mixtures were poorly correlated with each other.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The current findings provide insights into both the PAH emissions generated by various industrial processes and their associated occupational exposures and may be further used to develop risk assessment analyses of cancers associated with PAH mixtures.
authors.affiliation: Grenoble Alpes University, TIMC-IMAG (UMR 5525 CNRS - UGA), EPSP team (Environment and Health Prediction of Populations), F-38000 Grenoble, France. Electronic address: pascal.petit@univ-grenoble-alpes.fr.
authors.forename: Pascal
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Petit
authors.affiliation: Grenoble Alpes University, TIMC-IMAG (UMR 5525 CNRS - UGA), EPSP team (Environment and Health Prediction of Populations), F-38000 Grenoble, France; Grenoble Alpes teaching Hospital, Occupational and Environmental Toxicology Laboratory, Biochemistry Toxicology and Pharmacology Department, Biology and Pathology Institute, F-38000 Grenoble, France.
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Maître
authors.affiliation: Grenoble Alpes University, TIMC-IMAG (UMR 5525 CNRS - UGA), EPSP team (Environment and Health Prediction of Populations), F-38000 Grenoble, France; Grenoble Alpes teaching Hospital, Occupational and Environmental Toxicology Laboratory, Biochemistry Toxicology and Pharmacology Department, Biology and Pathology Institute, F-38000 Grenoble, France.
authors.forename: Renaud
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Persoons
authors.affiliation: Grenoble Alpes University, TIMC-IMAG (UMR 5525 CNRS - UGA), EPSP team (Environment and Health Prediction of Populations), F-38000 Grenoble, France; Biomathematics and Epidemiology EPSP-TIMC, VetAgro Sup, Veterinary Campus of Lyon, Marcy l'Etoile, France. Electronic address: bicout@ill.fr.
authors.forename: Dominique J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Bicout
mesh_terms: D004391:Dust; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D006801:Humans; D007221:Industry; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D016273:Occupational Exposure / Q000032:analysis*; D011084:Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D004391:Dust; D011084:Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons
keywords: Exposure assessment; Modeling; Occupational exposure; PAHs; Similar exposure function groups