Identification of practical maximum levels of dermal dust exposure for zinc oxide and zinc metal dusts

Measurement of dermal exposure to chemical dusts is an important part of the risk assessment approach for new and existing chemicals as required by European Union legislation.Once exposure measurements have been collected, interpretation of the data is problematic because there are no existing dermal exposure standards and it is therefore difficult to evaluate the risks to health.Many industrial tasks such as maintenance and cleaning work are traditionally considered to be ‘dirty work’ and these workers will have a significant dermal contamination. However, in cases where the dusts have low solubility, there would appear to be no obvious ill-health effects as a result. By studying exposure to these low solubility dusts, it possible to make judgements about more hazardous substances without endangering the health of workers in high risk environments. This report is concerned with the assessment of dermal exposure in the zinc industry, including galvanising and zinc chemical manufacturing. In this study, a series of controlled laboratory experiments were carried out using human volunteers. This was done to aid interpretation of workplace exposure measurements, which were obtained in a previous study. Conventional methods of dermal sampling provide limited information about exposure levels, since it is not possible to take into account spatial and temporal changes in the skin contaminant layer. However, the results of this study enable upper and lower ranges of workplace exposures to be estimated. “”