51. Blood Concentrations of Volatile Organic Compounds Among US Workers From Various Trades.
- Author
-
Zhang, Kunqi, Lan, Tuo, Bao, Wei, Cui, Qingbin, and Thorne, Peter S.
- Subjects
- *
OCCUPATIONAL disease risk factors , *BENZENE derivatives , *INDUSTRIAL safety , *OCCUPATIONAL exposure , *ORGANIC compounds , *REGRESSION analysis , *CONSTRUCTION industry , *SURVEYS , *DESCRIPTIVE statistics , *TOLUENE , *INDUSTRIAL hygiene , *DATA analysis software , *ADVERSE health care events , *ENVIRONMENTAL exposure - Abstract
The presumed high exposure to volatile organic compounds among construction workers has not been substantiated with biomonitoring evidence. This study found that construction occupation was associated with increased blood concentrations of toluene, ethylbenzene, o-xylene, and m-/p- xylene. The findings inform interventions for exposure reduction using engineering controls and personal protective equipment. Objective: This study aimed to examine blood benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, o-xylene, and m-/p-xylene (BTEX) concentrations and their trends contrasting construction workers with workers in other occupations from 1999 to 2014 in the United States. Methods: Using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, quantile regressions were performed to investigate associations between occupation and blood BTEX concentrations. Results: We found that high-risk and construction occupations were associated with increased blood concentrations of toluene, o-xylene, and m-/p-xylene at the 50–90th percentiles (P50–90), and ethylbenzene at P70–90. Moreover, although blood concentrations of ethylbenzene, o-xylene, and m-/p-xylene trended down among all US workers, no decreasing trend was observed for benzene and toluene among construction workers. Conclusions: Future studies are warranted to address questions about specific tasks to better assess VOC exposure from various trades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2023
- Full Text
- View/download PDF