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labricoleuseThis article is reprinted from ACTS FACTS, the monthly newsletter of the Arts, Crafts, and Theater Safety watchdog organization. I highly recommend subscribing to the newsletter, which is $20 for one year within the continental US, $23 for Canadian and Mexican delivery, and $26 for everywhere else. Check their website for more info.
Since many of us use solvent-based spray paints in the theatre, not only in aerosol cans but through airbrushes and Preval sprayer bottles, this is of particularly disturbing interest. If you thought your respirator was enough protective equipment, you're wrong.
Spray Paint Study: Major Exposure by Skin Absorption
A study in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine of shipyard spray painters found that dermal exposure was a greater source of total exposure to solvent than inhalation exposure. While vapor inhalation is recognized as a primary occupational exposure and prevented by wearing respirators, the route of skin contact is usually ignored, the study said.
In tropical and subtropical countries particularly, the study said, it is too hot for spray painters to wear protective suits. For this reason, the study monitored 15 male Taiwanese spray painters during a three-day work period in August 2005. The workers wore long-sleeved shirts and trousers and used air-purifying, half-face respirators while spraying with airless guns to paint block units for assembling ships. The workers wore no chemically protective clothing or gloves.
For the study, researchers collected personal exposure data outside and inside the workers' respirator masks. Each worker had two samplers clipped to his collar. The participants wore the samplers a minimum of six hours a day. Dermal exposure samplers were taped directly onto workers' skin. Nine samplers--each three centimeters square--were placed on the back, upper arms, forearms, and upper legs. The dermal sampling was limited to two hours. Researchers also collected the workers' urine before and after each work shift.
Air samplers showed that the primary occupational exposure was to ethylbenzene and xylene solvents in the paints. Seven of the 40 air samplers outside the respirators had ethylbenzene ocencetrations above 100 parts per million, which is the threshold limit value (TLV) set by the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists. Eleven of the 40 samples implied some level of overexposure to ethylbenzene and xylene, the study said.
The highest dermal exposure concentrations were found on the workers' upper legs. All of the dermal doses of ethylbenzene across the different body regions were higher when workers were spraying inside the assemblies than when they were spraying outside the assemblies. "Significant correlations were found between ambient concentrations of xylene and dermal exposure mass of xylene for all investigated body regions," the study said. Similar results were found for ethylbenzene.
Analyses of the workers' urine revealed a significant relationship between dermal exposure and levels of chemical exposure markers in the workers' urine. The study exstimated that the dermal absorption contribution to total exposure dose of xylene and ethylbenzene was approximately 62 percent and 84 percent, respectively. "Our results showed that the contribution of dermal exposure to the total dose was important," the study said.
COMMENT: Respiratory protection alone is not enough protection if air monitoring shows solvent concentrations from spray painting to be above the TLV for the solvents. When mists or high vapor concentrations are present, chemically protective clothing should also be recommended. This study shows that ordinary shirts and pants are not protective during spray painting.
This article is copyright ACTS, June 2007 (ISSN 1070-9274), reprinted courtesy of ACTS FACTS, Monona Rossol, Editor, 181 Thompson St. #23, New York, NY, 10012, 212-777-0062, ACTSNYC@cs.com, http://www.artscraftstheatresafety.org/
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How's that for disturbing? In only three days worth of monitoring, these painters--who clearly believed themselves to have adequate personal protective equipment in wearing long sleeve shirts and pants and air-purifying respirators--managed to get exposures above the TLV just from skin absorption. Something to think about next time you see someone go out to spray-paint something "real quick, just one thing," in, say, a tank top and shorts.
Since many of us use solvent-based spray paints in the theatre, not only in aerosol cans but through airbrushes and Preval sprayer bottles, this is of particularly disturbing interest. If you thought your respirator was enough protective equipment, you're wrong.
Spray Paint Study: Major Exposure by Skin Absorption
A study in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine of shipyard spray painters found that dermal exposure was a greater source of total exposure to solvent than inhalation exposure. While vapor inhalation is recognized as a primary occupational exposure and prevented by wearing respirators, the route of skin contact is usually ignored, the study said.
In tropical and subtropical countries particularly, the study said, it is too hot for spray painters to wear protective suits. For this reason, the study monitored 15 male Taiwanese spray painters during a three-day work period in August 2005. The workers wore long-sleeved shirts and trousers and used air-purifying, half-face respirators while spraying with airless guns to paint block units for assembling ships. The workers wore no chemically protective clothing or gloves.
For the study, researchers collected personal exposure data outside and inside the workers' respirator masks. Each worker had two samplers clipped to his collar. The participants wore the samplers a minimum of six hours a day. Dermal exposure samplers were taped directly onto workers' skin. Nine samplers--each three centimeters square--were placed on the back, upper arms, forearms, and upper legs. The dermal sampling was limited to two hours. Researchers also collected the workers' urine before and after each work shift.
Air samplers showed that the primary occupational exposure was to ethylbenzene and xylene solvents in the paints. Seven of the 40 air samplers outside the respirators had ethylbenzene ocencetrations above 100 parts per million, which is the threshold limit value (TLV) set by the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists. Eleven of the 40 samples implied some level of overexposure to ethylbenzene and xylene, the study said.
The highest dermal exposure concentrations were found on the workers' upper legs. All of the dermal doses of ethylbenzene across the different body regions were higher when workers were spraying inside the assemblies than when they were spraying outside the assemblies. "Significant correlations were found between ambient concentrations of xylene and dermal exposure mass of xylene for all investigated body regions," the study said. Similar results were found for ethylbenzene.
Analyses of the workers' urine revealed a significant relationship between dermal exposure and levels of chemical exposure markers in the workers' urine. The study exstimated that the dermal absorption contribution to total exposure dose of xylene and ethylbenzene was approximately 62 percent and 84 percent, respectively. "Our results showed that the contribution of dermal exposure to the total dose was important," the study said.
COMMENT: Respiratory protection alone is not enough protection if air monitoring shows solvent concentrations from spray painting to be above the TLV for the solvents. When mists or high vapor concentrations are present, chemically protective clothing should also be recommended. This study shows that ordinary shirts and pants are not protective during spray painting.
This article is copyright ACTS, June 2007 (ISSN 1070-9274), reprinted courtesy of ACTS FACTS, Monona Rossol, Editor, 181 Thompson St. #23, New York, NY, 10012, 212-777-0062, ACTSNYC@cs.com, http://www.artscraftstheatresafety.org/
How's that for disturbing? In only three days worth of monitoring, these painters--who clearly believed themselves to have adequate personal protective equipment in wearing long sleeve shirts and pants and air-purifying respirators--managed to get exposures above the TLV just from skin absorption. Something to think about next time you see someone go out to spray-paint something "real quick, just one thing," in, say, a tank top and shorts.
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no subject
Date: 2007-08-09 08:06 pm (UTC)At $4 a pop these are hard to beat. I use them for all sorts of stuff, not just painting.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-09 08:22 pm (UTC)lord. I can't count the quantity of spraypaint I've scrubbed off my fingers, hands, feet.....