Department of Environmental Health, Korea National Open University, Seoul, Korea.
Saf Health Work. 2012 Mar;3(1):1-10. doi: 10.5491/SHAW.2012.3.1.1. Epub 2012 Mar 8.
The aim of this review was to assess current knowledge related to the occupational exposure limit (OEL) for fluid aerosols including either mineral or chemical oil that are generated in metalworking operations, and to discuss whether their OEL can be appropriately used to prevent several health risks that may vary among metalworking fluid (MWF) types. The OEL (time-weighted average; 5 mg/m(3), short-term exposure limit ; 15 mg/m(3)) has been applied to MWF aerosols without consideration of different fluid aerosol-size fractions. The OEL, is also based on the assumption that there are no significant differences in risk among fluid types, which may be contentious. Particularly, the health risks from exposure to water-soluble fluids may not have been sufficiently considered. Although adoption of The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health's recommended exposure limit for MWF aerosol (0.5 mg/m(3)) would be an effective step towards minimizing and evaluating the upper respiratory irritation that may be caused by neat or diluted MWF, this would fail to address the hazards (e.g., asthma and hypersensitivity pneumonitis) caused by microbial contaminants generated only by the use of water-soluble fluids. The absence of an OEL for the water-soluble fluids used in approximately 80-90 % of all applicants may result in limitations of the protection from health risks caused by exposure to those fluids.
本次综述旨在评估与金属加工操作中产生的矿物或化学油类的流体气溶胶的职业暴露限值（OEL）相关的现有知识，并讨论其 OEL 是否可适当用于预防可能因金属加工液（MWF）类型而异的多种健康风险。OEL（时间加权平均值；5mg/m³，短期暴露限值；15mg/m³）已应用于 MWF 气溶胶，而未考虑不同的流体气溶胶粒径分数。OEL 还基于这样一种假设，即不同流体类型之间的风险没有显著差异，这可能存在争议。特别是，人们可能没有充分考虑到暴露于水溶性流体所带来的健康风险。尽管采用美国国家职业安全与健康研究所（NIOSH）推荐的 MWF 气溶胶接触限值（0.5mg/m³）将是朝着最小化和评估由纯 MWF 或稀释 MWF 引起的上呼吸道刺激的有效步骤，但这将无法解决仅由使用水溶性流体所产生的微生物污染物所引起的危害（例如哮喘和过敏性肺炎）。对于大约 80-90%的所有申请者所使用的水溶性流体，缺乏 OEL 可能会限制对这些流体所带来的健康风险的防护。
