Lead and Methylene Chloride Exposures Among Automotive Repair Technicians

Abstract

Potential exposures among repair technicians engaged in vehicle resurfacing operations prior to spray painting have not been thoroughly characterized. Environmental and personal air monitoring conducted in the State of Rhode Island have shown that automotive repair technicians may be exposed to metal particulates in sanding dust and methylene chloride vapors during vehicle paint removal operations. Hand wipe samples demonstrated that metals in sanding dust adhered to the hands of workers throughout the duration of the work day and were available for incidental ingestion from the handling of food/nonfood items and hand-to-mouth contact. A blood lead (PbB) screening effort among 21 workers at 2 facilities showed that 4 non-/less-exposed workers had mean PbB levels at the U.S. geometric mean of 2.8 microg/dL, while 2 out of 9 (22%) dedicated vehicle repair technicians had PbB levels at or above 30 microg Pb/dL whole blood--the level for potential adverse reproductive effects. Methylene chloride exposures were also found to exceed the Occupational Safety and Health Administrations (OSHA) 8-hr time-weighted average (TWA) action level and permissible exposure limit (PEL) in a limited number of samples (120 and 26 ppm, integrated work shift samples). Our findings suggest that thousands of professional technicians and vocational high school students may be at increased risk of adverse reproductive and/or other systemic effects.

Assessment of the Physicochemical and Heavy Metal Concentration from Effluents of Paint Industry in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

“…Therefore, except GS, this wastewater would have no adverse impact on fauna and flora of receiving environment. The study stated that stated the range of the measured pH values was 9.56 -10.38, which is higher than the WHO permissible range of 6 -9 ( Figure 1) [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10].…”

Exposure Evaluation for Benzene, Lead and Noise in Vehicle and Equipment Repair Shops

“…Air samples were collected during use of ventilated sanding equipment and non-ventilated sanding equipment. Sampling results for the total dust samples were similar between the non ventilated and the ventilated sanding equipment which ranged from 0.62 mglm 3 upwards to 12 mg/m 3 (Enander et al 2004). …”

“…However, use of the products could expose employees to airborne benzene concentrations that exceed the occupational exposure limit such as the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists, (ACGIH) threshold limit value (TLV) and OSHA's PEL depending on the amount of product used and the concentration of benzene in the product (Kopstein 2006). TLVs are not OSHA derived standards but are published guidelines established by a private research organization, Exposures to dusts and particulates can occur from work on brakes and clutches or during surface sanding, grinding, welding, and during auto body work involving body filler compounds (Enander et al 2004). The auto repair and refinishing industry has been associated with a high risk of exposure to lead from handling batteries, radiator repair and from mechanical paint removal.…”

“…While lead in many of the newer coating systems has been reduced or eliminated, some of the older automotive paints may still pose a hazard (Enander et al 2004). Composite sanding dust samples of original equipment manufacturing (OEM) paint from more than 200 vehicles were collected and analyzed for total metals following EPA procedures for characterizing solid waste.…”

Lead concentrations and risk exposure assessment in surface soils at residential lands previously used for auto-mechanic and auto-welding activities in Port Harcourt, Nigeria

“…Results of previous epidemiological studies conducted on adolescent workers indicated elevated blood lead levels for auto-mechanics and garage owners (Enander et al, 2004;Oktem et al, 2004;Tuakuila et al, 2010;Adela et al, 2012). Previous published studies (e.g.…”