Quantification of Historical Dust Exposures in the Diatomaceous Earth Industry

Details

• Personal Author:
  Checkoway, Harvey ; Heyer NJ ; Seixas, Noah S. ; Welp EAE
• Description:
  Quantitative estimates of dust exposure in a diatomaceous earth (DE) mining and milling operation have been derived based on air sampling records for the period 1948-1988. A total of 6395 records was included in the analysis. Conversion of results obtained by particle counting, expressed as millions of particles per cubic feet (mppcf) of gravimetrically from a filter cassette and expressed as mg m-3 total, were converted to mg m-3 respirable dust using a conversion factor derived from data obtained during the same periods at the plant. Conversion factors were calculated as the average difference of means on the log scale in order to provide stable and consistent conversions and as a ratio of arithmetic means so that the results could be compared with similar studies. After converting the available data to mg m-3 respirable dust, geometric mean (geometric standard deviation) concentrations were 0.37 (2.43) during the 1950s and 0.17 (2.35) during later periods. Exposures were estimated using two linear models, one estimating the changes in concentration over time, and the other providing job-specific mean exposures during the more recent period. Extrapolation of the estimates to periods prior to the availability of any data was done using a subjectively-determined scaling factor. The average estimated respirable dust concentrations for 135 jobs were 3.55 (+/-1.25), 1.37 (+/-0.48), 0.47 (+/-0.16) and 0.29 (+/-0.10) mg m-3 prior to 1949, 1949-1953, 1954-1973 and 1974-1988, respectively. Despite the limitations of the available data, the estimation procedures used are expected to provide reasonable quantitative estimates of silica-containing dust exposure for subsequent exposure-response analyses. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Dust Environmental Monitoring Lung Lung Diseases Neoplasms Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Respiratory System Respiratory Tract Diseases Safety Silicon Dioxide

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• Keywords:
  Air-sampling Air-sampling-techniques Dust-exposure Dust-particles Exposure-levels Lung-cancer Occupational-exposure Organic-dusts Pulmonary-system-disorders Quantitative-analysis Respirable-dust Silica-dusts

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• ISSN:
  0003-4878
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  OSHA Region 10 ; Washington
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  41
• Issue:
  5
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20024504
• Citation:
  Ann Occup Hyg 1997 Oct; 41(5):591-604
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1998
• Performing Organization:
  University of Washington, Seattle, Washington
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  19940401
• Source Full Name:
  Annals of Occupational Hygiene
• End Date:
  19960331
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:0d2e00b1b3a1555b3be95f6014d0818c955a8203f1aaabaf8b592dd3c6101056ad75c70a1fe9532ffce13217b3c5aebad207a58951b7396eef6d41a7c66bf4ce
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/196277/cdc_196277_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.68 MB ]