Using Real-Time Area VOC Measurements to Estimate Total Hydrocarbons Exposures to Workers Involved in the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

Details

• Personal Author:
  Banerjee S ; Engel LS ; Groth CP ; Huynh TB ; Kwok RK ; Ramachandran G ; Sandler DP ; Stenzel M ; Stewart PA ; Banerjee S ; Engel LS ; Groth CP ; Huynh TB ; Kwok RK ; Ramachandran G ; Sandler DP ; Stenzel M ; Stewart PA
• Description:
  Even though the Deepwater Horizon oil spill response and clean-up (OSRC) had one of the largest exposure monitoring efforts of any oil spill, a number of exposure groups did not have sufficient personal data available or there were gaps in days measured to adequately characterize exposures for the GuLF STUDY, an epidemiologic study investigating the health of the OSRC workers. Area measurements were available from real-time air monitoring instruments and used to supplement the personal exposure measurements. Objectives: The objective was to present a method that used real-time volatile organic compounds (VOCs) area measurements transformed to daily total hydrocarbons (THC) time-weighted averages (TWAs) to supplement THC personal full-shift measurements collected using passive charcoal badges. A second objective was to develop exposure statistics using these data for workers on vessels piloting remotely operated vehicle (ROV) vessels and other marine vessels (MVs) not at the job title level, but at the vessel level. Methods: From hourly vessel averages derived from approximately 26 million real-time VOC measurements, we estimated full-shift VOC TWAs. Then, we determined the relationship between these TWAs and corresponding full-shift THC personal measurements taken on the same vessel-day. We used this relationship to convert the full-shift VOC measurements to full-shift 'THC' TWA estimates when no personal THC measurements existed on a vessel-day. We then calculated arithmetic means (AMs) and other statistics of THC exposures for each vessel. Results: The VOC-derived estimates substantially supplemented the THC personal measurements, with the number of vessel-days for which we have exposure estimates increasing by approximately 60%. The estimates of the AMs are some of the highest observed in the GuLF STUDY. As expected, the AMs decreased over time, consistent with our findings on other vessels. Conclusions: Despite the inherent limitations of using real-time area measurements, we were able to develop additional daily observations of personal THC exposures for workers on the ROV vessels and other MVs over time. The estimates likely resulted in more representative estimates of the AMs in the GuLF STUDY. The method used here can be applied in other occupational settings and industries for personal exposure estimation where large amounts of area measurements and more limited numbers of personal measurements are available. A correction to this article was published on April 7, 2022: https://doi.org/10.1093/annweh/wxac018. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Environmental Exposure Environmental Monitoring Epidemiology Hydrocarbons Occupational Health Risk Assessment Risk Factors Safety Volatile Organic Compounds Workplace
• Keywords:
  Air Monitoring Author Keywords: Deepwater Horizon Deepwater Horizon Exposure Levels Linear Regression Monitoring Systems Oil Spills Real-time Area Measurements Risk Factors Time Weighted Average Exposure Total Hydrocarbons VOCs Volatile Organic Compounds Work Environment Workers

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• ISSN:
  2398-7308
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article ; Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  California ; Maryland ; North Carolina ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 4 ; OSHA Region 9 ; Pennsylvania ; Virginia ; West Virginia
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) ; National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health ; Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America ; North America
• Volume:
  66
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20063521
• Citation:
  Ann Work Expo Health 2022 Apr; 66(Suppl 1):i156-i171
• Contact Point Address:
  Gurumurthy Ramachandran, Department of Environmental Health and Engineering, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, 615 N Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA
• Email:
  gramach5@jhu.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2022
• Performing Organization:
  Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20160901
• Source Full Name:
  Annals of Work Exposures and Health
• Supplement:
  1
• End Date:
  20190831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:f0e5bad5d71bec25cc27f66d54c90ccdf2d0eaf416fd4e05a6b9898d89592ccd9467ba1555b22de12cc37468d08b2b09cdceae0af57edf1d375c74664802ac1b
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/222111/cdc_222111_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1013.70 KB ]