Zhyldyz Kurzhunbaeva, Andrea Spinazzè, Davide Campagnolo, Sabrina Rovelli, Giacomo Fanti, Omor Kasymov, Andrea Cattaneo, Claudio Colosio, Domenico M Cavallo
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
Objectives: An increasing number of countries are banning the production and use of asbestos, in compliance with the ratification of the C162 Asbestos Convention and the Basel Convention, and in response to the call for its elimination in the ILO resolution and WHO reports on the health risks associated with asbestos. Nevertheless, several countries, including Kyrgyzstan, are still miners and/or manufacturers of asbestos. The main objective of the study is to assess the occupational exposure to chrysotile of workers engaged in a production facility of asbestos-cement products in Kyrgyzstan.
Methods: Monitored workers (n = 16, for a total of n = 18 samples) were divided into 3 "Similar Exposure Groups" (SEGs; SEG-1: asbestos loading; SEG-2; asbestos-cement mixing; SEG-3: cutting of asbestos-cement sheets) according to EN 689 standard. Samples were collected through personal sampling and subsequently examined by means of scanning electron microscope equipped with an energy-dispersive spectrometer for the compositional analysis of each fibre. The numerical concentration of airborne asbestos fibres was henceforward determined by dividing the number of fibres and the volume of sampled air (expressed in the number of fibres per millilitre of air: ff/ml).
Results: Investigated workers resulted to be exposed to chrysotile fibres. Results (GM ± GSD) outlined extremely high exposure levels for SEG-1 (2.2 ± 2.1 ff/ml) and SEG-3 (4.7 ± 1.6 ff/ml) workers and lower-but still relevant-exposure values for SEG-2 (0.91 ± 2.6 ff/ml) workers.
Conclusions: The results obtained in this case study can help to document potentially critical situations of occupational exposure to asbestos that can still occur nowadays in low and middle-income countries where asbestos is still mined and processed.
期刊介绍:
About the Journal
Annals of Work Exposures and Health is dedicated to presenting advances in exposure science supporting the recognition, quantification, and control of exposures at work, and epidemiological studies on their effects on human health and well-being. A key question we apply to submission is, "Is this paper going to help readers better understand, quantify, and control conditions at work that adversely or positively affect health and well-being?"
We are interested in high quality scientific research addressing:
the quantification of work exposures, including chemical, biological, physical, biomechanical, and psychosocial, and the elements of work organization giving rise to such exposures;
the relationship between these exposures and the acute and chronic health consequences for those exposed and their families and communities;
populations at special risk of work-related exposures including women, under-represented minorities, immigrants, and other vulnerable groups such as temporary, contingent and informal sector workers;
the effectiveness of interventions addressing exposure and risk including production technologies, work process engineering, and personal protective systems;
policies and management approaches to reduce risk and improve health and well-being among workers, their families or communities;
methodologies and mechanisms that underlie the quantification and/or control of exposure and risk.
There is heavy pressure on space in the journal, and the above interests mean that we do not usually publish papers that simply report local conditions without generalizable results. We are also unlikely to publish reports on human health and well-being without information on the work exposure characteristics giving rise to the effects. We particularly welcome contributions from scientists based in, or addressing conditions in, developing economies that fall within the above scope.