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Exposure to carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic compounds and health risk assessment for diesel-exhaust exposed workers

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Abstract

Objectives

Workers' exposure to diesel exhaust in a bus depot, a truck repair workshop and an underground tunnel was determined by the measuring of elemental carbon (EC) and 15 carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic compounds (PACs) proposed by the US Department of Health and Human Services/National Toxicology Program (NTP). Based on these concentration data, the genotoxic PAC contribution to the diesel-exhaust particle (DEP) lung-cancer risk was calculated.

Method

Respirable particulate matter was collected during the summer and winter of 2001 (except for in the underground situation) and analysed by coulometry for EC and by GC–MS methods for PACs. The use of potency equivalence factors (PEFs) allowed the studied PAC concentrations to be expressed as benzo[a]pyrene equivalents (B[a]Peq). We then calculated the lung-cancer risk due to PACs and DEPs by multiplying the B[a]Peq and EC concentrations by the corresponding unit risk factor. The ratio of these two risks values has been considered as an estimate of the genotoxic contribution to the DEP cancer risk.

Results

For the bus depot and truck repair workshop, exposure to EC and PACs has been shown to increase by three to six times and ten times, respectively, during winter compared to summer. This increase has been attributed mainly to a decrease in ventilation during the cold. With the PEF approach, the B[a]Peq concentration is five-times higher than if only benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P) is considered. Dibenzopyrenes contribute an important part to this increase. A simple calculation based on unit risk factors indicates that the studied PAC contribution to the total lung-cancer risk attributed to DEPs is in the range of 3-13%.

Conclusions

The 15 NTP PACs represent a small but non-negligible part of lung-cancer risk with regard to diesel exposure. From this point of view, the dibenzopyrene family are important compounds to be considered.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the various companies involved in this work for allowing them to sample in their buildings, and thank Dr. P. Schneuwly from Schweizerische Unfallversicherunganstalt, Lucerne, Switzerland for the loan of the PM-4 pump.

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  1. Institut Universitaire Romand de Santé au Travail, Rue du Bugnon 19, 1005, Lausanne, Switzerland

    J.-J. Sauvain, T. Vu Duc & M. Guillemin

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  1. J.-J. Sauvain
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Correspondence to J.-J. Sauvain.

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Sauvain, JJ., Vu Duc, T. & Guillemin, M. Exposure to carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic compounds and health risk assessment for diesel-exhaust exposed workers. Int Arch Occup Environ Health 76, 443–455 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-003-0439-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-003-0439-4

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