Evaluation of Occupational Exposure Risk for Employees Working in Dynamic Olfactometry: Focus On Non-Carcinogenic Effects Correlated with Exposure to Landfill Emissions

Abstract

This work aims to evaluate the non-carcinogenic health effects related to landfill odor emissions, therefore focusing on workers involved in dynamic olfactometry. Currently, the most common technique to quantify odor emissions is dynamic olfactometry, a sensorial analysis involving human assessors. During the analysis, assessors are directly exposed, at increasing concentrations, to odor samples, and thus to the hazardous pollutants contained therein. This entails the need to estimate the associated exposure risk to guarantee examiners’ safety. Therefore, this paper evaluates the exposure risk for olfactometric examiners to establish the minimum dilution level to be adopted during the analysis of landfills’ odorous samples to guarantee panelists’ safety. For this purpose, an extensive literature review regarding the pollutants emitted by landfill odor sources was conducted, comparing compounds’ chemical concentrations and threshold limit values (TLVs) to calculate the Hazard Index (HI) and thus establish a minimum dilution value. The data collected indicate that a non-negligible non-carcinogenic risk exists for all landfill emissions considered. However, from the data considered, the minimum dilution factor to be adopted is lower than the typical odor concentration observed for these sources. Therefore, the olfactometric analysis of landfill samples can be generally conducted in safe conditions.

Chemical characterization of odorous emissions: A comparative performance study of different sampling methods

“…Focusing on health effect, from Table 3 it is possible to underline that a limited number of species are described by an occupational exposure limit for long exposure (EU OEL-8 h): therefore, for the majority of compounds detected, a toxicological limit for the inhalation is not defined by European level. For the compounds characterized by a OEL value, the majority present an OT lower than the EU-OEL value: by this comparison, it is possible to evidence that, according to previous studies [27,28], these compounds can be detected by human nose before became dangerous for human health. The only exceptions are the methyl formate and benzene, characterized by an OT higher than the EU-OEL 8 h: for these compounds, therefore, particular attention should be applied during quantification because they precisely cannot be perceived by the nose before they reach their threshold of toxicity.…”

“…This technique allows the separation and the identification of compounds present in the odorous mixtures: knowing the compounds present in odorous gasses is useful to identify the best techniques to reduce them during the storage of the biomass. In addition, the identification of compounds can be useful to recognise compounds that could have a higher OT than their limit of exposure [27,28]. However, due to the complexity of the odour matrix, different techniques and approaches to sample and chemically analyse odorous emissions exist [22,[29][30][31][32].…”

Material Flow Analysis and Occupational Exposure Assessment in Additive Manufacturing End-of-Life Material Management

“…37 Experimental exposure and chemical concentration data were used, where appropriate, to reduce the uncertainty of the generic exposure assess- ment. 4,21,23,29,38 Occupational exposures were estimated based on dermal and inhalation routes. Equation 1 describes the potential worst-case dermal exposure (EXP dermal,i ) that workers may encounter for a given process (i).…”

Dynamic Olfactometry and Oil Refinery Odour Samples: Application of a New Method for Occupational Risk Assessment

“…Despite the issue of the toxicological risk associated with odour emissions for citizens and workers being discussed in several scientific papers [ 15 , 16 ] (both on citizens and workers), the specific risk assessment for olfactometric workers has not yet been sufficiently investigated and assessed. Indeed, in the literature, only a limited number of studies have dealt with the exposure risk of olfactometric workers, and many of these refer to literature data [ 11 , 17 , 18 ] or emission limit values [ 19 ]. The exposure risk assessment for these examiners correlated with the analysis of real odorous samples appears, therefore, fundamental to define appropriate actions to protect their health, and thus, to safely conduct olfactometric analyses.…”

“…However, this prescription still appears too general, and, at the current state, a detailed and standardized procedure is not yet available. On the other hand, in the scientific literature, some articles have proposed a method for assessing the exposure risk for panellists [ 11 , 17 , 18 , 19 ]. However, these studies apply, in absence of a standardized method, different occupational exposure limit (OEL) values, obtaining different results [ 29 ].…”