Guangdong-Hongkong-Macau Joint Laboratory of Collaborative Innovation for Environmental Quality, Institute for Environmental and Climate Research, Jinan University, Guangzhou, 51143, China.
State Joint Key Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China.
Environ Pollut. 2021 Jan 15;269:115740. doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2020.115740. Epub 2020 Oct 19.
Solvent use and paint consumption are significant source sectors of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emissions in China. The occupational painters have high risk of health effect due to exposure to high VOCs concentration. However, the toxic components in coating environment have not been carefully identified, and the health risks of VOCs exposure have not been sufficiently assessed. This study collected air samples from nine workshops of three major coating sectors in the Yangtze River Delta of China, namely cargo container coating, ship equipment coating, and furniture coating, to evaluate the non-cancer and cancer risk of toxic VOCs exposure to occupational painters under a normal working condition. The results show that the container coating had highest cancer risk (2.29 × 10-5.53 × 10) exceeding the safe limit of 1.0 × 10, while non-cancer risk of all workshops was lower than acceptable level of 1. Ethylbenzene and 1,2-dichloropropane should be targeted for priority removal during the container coating process in attempt to reduce adverse health effect on the occupational painters. This study helps better understand the health risk of VOCs exposure in coating workshops in China and provides information for policy-makers to formulate possible control of specific toxic compounds during coating process.
溶剂使用和油漆消耗是中国挥发性有机化合物（VOCs）排放的重要来源领域。由于接触高浓度 VOCs，职业油漆工有很高的健康影响风险。然而，涂层环境中的有毒成分尚未得到仔细识别，VOCs 暴露的健康风险也未得到充分评估。本研究从中国长江三角洲的三个主要涂料行业的九个车间收集了空气样本，即货柜涂料、船舶设备涂料和家具涂料，以评估在正常工作条件下，有毒 VOCs 暴露对职业油漆工的非癌症和癌症风险。结果表明，集装箱涂料的癌症风险最高（2.29×10-5.53×10），超过了 1.0×10 的安全限值，而所有车间的非癌症风险均低于可接受水平 1。在集装箱涂料过程中，应优先去除乙苯和 1,2-二氯丙烷，以试图减少对职业油漆工的不良健康影响。本研究有助于更好地了解中国涂料车间 VOCs 暴露的健康风险，并为决策者在涂料过程中制定特定有毒化合物的可能控制措施提供信息。
