Occupational Exposure to Volatile Organic Compounds and Aldehydes in the U.S. Trucking Industry

Abstract

Diesel exhaust is a complex chemical mixture that has been linked to lung cancer mortality in a number of epidemiologic studies. However, the dose-response relationship remains largely undefined, and the specific components responsible for carcinogenicity have not been identified. Although previous focus has been on the particulate phase, diesel exhaust includes a vapor phase of numerous volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and aldehydes that are either known or suspected carcinogens, such as 1,3-butadiene, benzene, and formaldehyde. However, there are relatively few studies that quantify exposure to VOCs and aldehydes in diesel-heavy and other exhaust-related microenvironments. As part of a nationwide assessment of exposure to diesel exhaust in the trucking industry, we collected measurements of VOCs and aldehydes at 15 different U.S. trucking terminals and in city truck drivers (with 6 repeat site visits), observing average shift concentrations in truck cabs and at multiple background and work area locations within each terminal. In this paper, we characterize occupational exposure to 18 different VOCs and aldehydes, as well as relationships with particulate mass (elemental carbon in PM < 1 μ m and PM 2.5 ) across locations to determine source characteristics. Our results show that occupational exposure to VOCs and aldehydes varies significantly across the different sampling locations within each terminal, with significantly higher exposures noted in the work environments over background levels (p < 0.01). A structural equation model performed well in predicting terminal exposures to VOCs and aldehydes as a function of job, background levels, weather conditions, proximity to a major road, and geographic location (R 2 = 0.2-0.4 work area; R 2 = 0.5-0.9 background).

Benzene exposure: An overview of monitoring methods and their findings

“…Workers who are part of the transportation industry, such as drivers and service station workers, and individuals in occupation that are near traffic, such as police officers are exposed to levels of tens to hundreds of ppb [52–55]. Peak values for mechanics who are exposed directly to gasoline fumes can approach ppm levels [56–58].…”

Occupational exposure levels to benzene in Italy: findings from a national database

“…Results on truck drivers and land transport sector are consistent with a study conducted in Finland on exposure to gasoline vapours (Vainiotalo and Ruonakangas 1999) that found a GM concentrations of benzene of 0.15-0.28 mg/m 3 (corresponding to about 0.05-0.09 ppm). A survey on occupational exposure to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and aldehydes in the US trucking industry reported that driver exposures are a combination of car and truck emissions associated with driving in traffic on metro area highways and streets, providing the highest exposure conditions to benzene (Davis et al 2007). Concerning the other high-risk industrial sectors of ''Manufacture of mechanic machinery'' and ''Sale, maintenance and repair of motor vehicles; retail sale of automotive fuel'', comparable findings have Numbertof measures 5,000 -10,000 (1) 2,500 -5,000 (2) 0 -2,500 (1) Fig.…”

A cryogen-free refrigerating preconcentration device for the measurement of C2 to C4 hydrocarbons in ambient air

“…The breakthrough time was defined as the time that marked an increase of the baseline in the frontal chromatogram. The breakthrough volume V T g (cm 3 g À1 ) was calculated as the net retention volume of the target compound adsorbed per gram of adsorbent at the specific temperature. The pressure correction factor was not applied in the experiments.…”

“…[1][2][3] Since the concentration of VOCs in air normally exists at the ppb or sub-ppb (v/v) levels, a preconcentration step is required to meet the detection limits of most modern gas chromatography (GC) detection methods. Adsorptive enrichment on solid adsorbents followed by thermal desorption is a well-established sample preparation technique, and is widely used for this purpose.…”