Army Industrial Hygiene News

September 2018, \ Issue 84

Army Industrial Hygiene News and Regulatory Summary

Hazardous Substances

Special Interest Articles: ? Bio-

monitoring ? Fentanyl ? Pesticide

Safety ? Biosecurity ? Nano

Regulation

New: 11 Best Practices for Lowering Firefighter Cancer Risk

A recent report from the International Association of Fire Chiefs' Volunteer and Combination Officers Section and the National Volunteer Fire Council details 11 best practices for minimizing cancer risk among firefighters.

According to NIOSH research, nearly 30,000 firefighters who participated in a study between 2010 and 2015 had higher rates of digestive, oral, respiratory and urinary cancer than the general population. They also had nearly twice as many cases of malignant mesothelioma, a rare type of cancer triggered by asbestos exposure.

The Lavender Ribbon Report, released Aug. 9, expands on a previously released poster outlining the best practices. It is intended to "provide specific guidance on how to adopt these actions into the everyday culture of fire departments." Recommendations include:

? Wear full personal protective equipment throughout the duration of incidents, including self-contained breathing apparatus during salvage and overhaul operations.

? Change and wash clothes as soon as possible after exposure to products

of combustion or other contaminants. Isolate used clothes in a trash bag if washing facilities are not immediately available. ? Shower as soon as possible after exposure to products of combustion or other contaminants, ideally within one hour. ? Get an annual physical. ? Refrain from using tobacco products. ? Include fully documented fire or chemical exposures on incident reports and personal exposure reports.

Read more: m/articles/17451-new-11-best-practicesfor-lowering-firefighter-cancer-risk

Army Industrial Hygiene News and Regulatory Summary

Contents:

Metabolite Analysis Predicts 9/11 Lung Damage

Hazardous Substance..........1 Radiation............5 Ventilation.........5 PPE...................6 Noise................7 Preventive Medicine...........9 Environmental Health...............12 Ergonomics......14 Safety................14 Emergency Preparedness & Response......17 Deployment Health..............18 Nanotech.........18 Regulatory Research & IH News ......19 Training...........22

Analysis of blood samples taken from World Trade Center (WTC) firefighters soon after 9/11 led to the identification of more than two dozen metabolites that, in a retrospective analysis, reliably predicted which workers would go on to develop lung disease.

The metabolomic study identified "plausible pathways associated with loss of lung function" that could potentially lead to metabolic tests for the early detection of lung damage associated with exposure to fire, smoke, and toxic chemicals, New York University Langone School of Medicine researchers reported in BMJ Open Respiratory Research.

Read more: m/publichealthpolicy/environm entalhealth/74917

Assessing the Accuracy of Commercially Available Gas Sensors for the Measurement of Ambient Ozone and Nitrogen Dioxide

The objective of the NIOSH accuracy criterion is to ensure that measurements from monitoring devices are within ? 25% of the true concentration of the analyte with 95% certainty. To determine whether NO2 and O3 sensors meet this criterion, three commercially available units (Cairclip O3/NO2, Aeroqual NO2, and Aeroqual O3 sensors) were co-located three times with

validated instruments (NOx chemiluminescence [NO2mon] and photometric O3 analyzers [O3mon]) at an outdoor monitoring station.

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Army Industrial Hygiene News and Regulatory Summary

As cofactors of sensor performance such as temperature (T) and relative humidity (RH) potentially influence the response of NO2 and O3 sensors, corrections for cofactors were made by using T, RH, and the sensor measurements to predict measurements made by NO2mon and O3mon during the first co-location period (training dataset). The developed models were tested in the merged data obtained from the second and third co-location periods (testing dataset). In the training and testing datasets, the mean NO2 as measured by NO2mon was 4.6ppb (range=0.4 ? 35ppb) and 9.4ppb (range=1 ? 37ppb), respectively. The mean O3 in the training and testing datasets as measured by O3mon was 38.8ppb (range=1 ? 65ppb) and 35.7ppb (range=1 ? 61ppb), respectively. None of the sensor measurements in the training dataset were within the NIOSH

accuracy criterion (mean error 25%). After correcting for cofactors of sensor performance, the accuracy of the Cairclip O3/NO2 and the Aeroqual O3 sensors considerably improved when tested with the testing dataset (mean error=-1% and 14%, respectively). However, the Aeroqual NO2 sensor had an error that was not within ? 25%. Raw measurements from the tested sensors may be unsuitable for assessing workers' exposure to NO2 and O3. Corrections for cofactors of Cairclip O3/NO2 and Aeroqual O3 sensor performance are required for more accurate occupational exposure assessment.

Read more: Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene, Accepted author version posted online: 29 Aug 2018 (Available with AIHA membership)

Why Do You Need 10% Vol Oxygen to Operate a Catalytic Bead LEL Sensor?

than 10% vol oxygen (O2), the CB LEL sensor is not recommended. Here's why:

The catalytic bead lower explosive limit (CB LEL) sensor is widely used for combustible gas detection based on its low cost, ease of use, and the ability to detect a wide range of gases. However, for some special applications, such as environments with less

Reason #1: 10% vol O2 allows gas readings up to 100% LEL. To help you better understand this, let me explain the basic principle of how a catalytic bead LEL sensor works. A catalytic bead LEL sensor senses a combustible gas through flameless combustion that occurs with the help of electrically produced heat and a catalyst material coating on the sensing bead. In other words, a CB LEL sensor detects gas through the actual burning of the gas. This is why it can detect a wide

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Army Industrial Hygiene News and Regulatory Summary

range of gases and can detect multiple gases at the same time. Like three elements of a fire, CB LEL gas sensing requires fuel (combustible gas in this case), heat (by a metal wire coil buried in the sensor bead), and oxygen.

Read more: /why-do-you-need-voloxygen.aspx?admgarea=ht.IndustrialHygien e

Assessment of Occupational Exposure to Airborne Chlorine Dioxide of Healthcare Workers Using Impregnated Wipes during High-Level Disinfection of Non-Lumened Flexible Nasoendoscopes

Routine flexible nasoendoscopy in otolaryngology clinics is well established, the rate-limiting step of which being the speed of the nasoendoscopes reprocessing method used. Non-lumened flexible nasoendoscopes are expensive, heatsensitive, delicate instruments that cannot be sterilized in an autoclave but must be disinfected by means of high level disinfection (HLD). In one of the public hospitals in Singapore, the method of disinfection was recently changed to the use of commercial impregnated wipes which generates less than 1% chlorine dioxide upon activation. An exposure assessment was performed to assess the potential exposure of healthcare workers (HCWs) to airborne chlorine dioxide during nasoendoscope disinfection. A total of fourteen long-term personal samples, four short-term personal samples and sixteen long-term area samples were collected over eight days in midget impingers containing 0.02% potassium iodide in sodium carbonate/sodium bicarbonate buffer during the nasoendoscope disinfection. The samples were then analyzed by ionchromatograph. The chlorine dioxide

concentrations and upper confidence limit at 95% confidence level (UCL95%) for personal and area samples collected were all below the occupational exposure limits (OEL) for chlorine dioxide (Singapore workplace Safety and Health PELs, ACGIH TLVs, U.S. OSHA PELs). The study presented evidence that the exposure of HCWs to chlorine dioxide during high-level disinfection of flexible nasoendoscopes were deemed insignificant.

Read more: Journal of Occupational and

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Army Industrial Hygiene News and Regulatory Summary

Environmental Hygiene, Accepted author version posted online: 14 Sep 2018

(Available with AIHA membership)

Development of a New Method for Biomonitoring of Multiple Metals in Occupational Exposure

The assessment of co-exposure to several types of metal contamination poses a hurdle for occupational monitoring. Determination of elements in biological samples is an important way to evaluate occupational exposure. However, optimized methods for the extraction of multiple metals from biological samples have not been reported in recent studies. Therefore, solid-phase extraction (SPE) based on the functionalized Nano-zeolite Y was

suggested for the biomonitoring of metal co-exposure. SPE was conducted with ammonium pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate (APDC) surrounded by Triton X-100 micelles, which were loaded into the pores of Nano-zeolite Y. In this study, SPE was optimized for pre-concentration of trace amounts of chromium (Cr), cadmium (Cd), and lead (Pb) in urine samples with respect to the pH, APDC concentration, elution condition, amount of functionalized Nanozeolite Y, and sample volume. This method has been successfully optimized for the extraction of the mentioned multiple metals with >97% efficiency and an acceptable reproducibility with a coefficient variation of ................
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