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Application of Multiple Occupational Health Risk Assessment Models for Metal Fumes in Welding Process

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Abstract

Welding fumes have an important role to create the adverse health effects. So, the aim of this study was to use of multiple occupational health risk assessment models for metal fumes in welding process. This cross-sectional study was conducted among welding workers. Sampling of heavy metals such as Sn, Zn, Al, Fe, Cd, Pb, Cu, Mn, Ni, Cr, and As was provided based on the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) method 7300 and analyzed by inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy (ICP-MS). Risk assessment was managed by four methods including Malaysia’s method, Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Essentials (COSHH model), Chinese OHRA standard (GBZ/T 298–2017), and EPA method. Also, Monte Carlo simulation was used to examine the uncertainties by using the Crystal Ball tool. To compare the models, the risk levels of each model were converted into the risk ratio and the SPSS 22.0 software was used to the statistical analysis. The consistency of the two occupational health risk assessment models was examined by Cohen’s Kappa. Risk ration was the highest level for Cr (VI) fumes in all models. Also, carcinogenic risk was unacceptable for all examined fumes. Moreover, non-carcinogenic risk was the highest (HI > 1) for As fumes. Mont Carlo simulations suggested that exposure time (ET) had a significant effect on the risk. Also, there was a good consistency between Malaysia method/GBZ/T 298–2017 and COSHH model/GBZ/T 298–2017. Therefore, it is recommended that the engineering and administrative controls should be provided to reduce exposure.

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Data Availability

All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article. Also, readers can seek published preprint in Research Square with https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-2476293/v2 [48].

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Acknowledgements

We would like to express our special appreciation to people who helped in collecting and analyzing data in this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Occupational Health Engineering, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Bahman Pourhassan, Zahra Beigzadeh, Nafiseh Nasirzadeh & Ali Karimi

Authors
  1. Bahman Pourhassan
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  2. Zahra Beigzadeh
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  3. Nafiseh Nasirzadeh
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  4. Ali Karimi
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Sampling and analyzing were conducted by Bahman Pourhassan. Risk assessment was done by Nafiseh Nasirzadeh and Zahra Beigzadeh, and the first draft of the manuscript was written by them. Dr. Ali Karimi was the supervisor. All authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. Finally, they read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Nafiseh Nasirzadeh or Ali Karimi.

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Appendices

Appendix 1

Table

Table 7 Health risk assessment by human resources of Malaysia’s method
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7

Appendix 2

Table

Table 8 Health risk assessment by GBZ/T 298–2017 model
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8

Appendix 3

Table

Table 9 Health risk assessment by COSHH model
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9

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Pourhassan, B., Beigzadeh, Z., Nasirzadeh, N. et al. Application of Multiple Occupational Health Risk Assessment Models for Metal Fumes in Welding Process. Biol Trace Elem Res 202, 811–823 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12011-023-03717-w

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