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The study investigated the exposure of spray painters to organic solvents, toxic metals, and hexavalent chromium over 21 working days in 2017. The results found these concentrations of 12 VOCs to be below the short-term exposure limit (STEL) established by the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). The mass concentration of total particulate matter (PM) exposure to workers was 20.01 ± 10.78 mg/m 3 , which exceeds OSHA's permissible exposure level of 15 mg/m 3 . The mean concentration of the total metals for all particle sizes was 109.1 ± 12.0 μg/m 3 , and those for lead (496,017.0 ng/m 3 ) and iron (252,123.8 ng/m 3 ) were the highest of metal elements. Significantly, the mean concentrations of Pb and As exceeded OSHA's permissible exposure limits (PELs) of 0.05 and 0.01 mg/m 3 , respectively. The total hexavalent chromium concentration was 1163.01 ng/m 3 , and the individual particle sizes (PM 1-2.5 , PM 1 , and PM 0.25 ) were strongly and positively correlated with the Cr(VI) concentrations for PM 2.5 . The study determined that approximately 56.14% of the hexavalent chromium inhaled during the spray-painting process was deposited in the upper respiratory system of the head airway region, followed by the alveolar and tracheobronchial regions, with fractions of 11.93 and 0.05%, respectively. Although the mean ratio of hexavalent chromium to total chromium was only 3.6% for all particle sizes, the cancer risk of the total particles in Cr(VI) (1.6 × 10 -3 ) exceeded the acceptable risk value (10 -6 ). The cancer risks of As and Cr(VI) associated with quasi-ultrafine particles, PM 0.5-1 , PM 1-2.5 , and PM > 2.5 , also exceeded 10 -6 . Comparison of the carcinogenicity risk of VOCs and metals suggests that the adverse health effect of inhaled particles on spray-painting workers is more serious than that from VOC exposure.

Purpose: Exposure to organic solvents and noise may be causal agents in the development of hearing loss and tinnitus. The objectives of the present study were to examine the association of organic solvents with hearing loss and tinnitus and to assess the interaction of organic solvent and occupational noise exposure on hearing loss and tinnitus., Methods: A secondary data analysis of data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and Occupational Information Network (O*NET) among a study population ranging from 1085 to 2471 study participants from 1999 to 2004. Multiple multivariate logistic regression models were used to assess the associations of individual organic solvent exposures as measured by blood biomarkers (1,4-dichlorobenzene, benzene, ethylbenzene, styrene, toluene, o-xylene, and m-/p-xylene) with self-reported hearing loss, audiometrically assessed hearing loss, and self-reported tinnitus. Models were adjusted for age, gender, race/ethnicity, diabetes, non-occupational noise exposure, smoking, and income. Organic solvents found to be statistically significantly associated with the outcome after adjusting for covariates were tested for interaction with occupational noise exposure., Results: Solvent exposure was not statistically significantly associated with self-reported tinnitus. Benzene (OR 1.43, 95% CI 1.15-1.78), ethylbenzene (OR 1.24, 95% CI 1.02-1.50), and toluene (OR 1.27, 95% CI 1.06-1.52) concentrations were statistically significantly associated with increased adjusted odds of high-frequency hearing loss. No statistically significant interaction was observed between these solvents and occupational noise on high-frequency hearing loss., Conclusions: We found no evidence of an association between organic solvents and tinnitus; however, there was evidence of an association between organic solvent exposure and prevalence of high-frequency hearing loss.