Dietz Marlene, Kahl Anke, Schlüter Urs
Unit 4.I.4 Exposure Assessment, Exposure Science, Division 4 Hazardous Substances and Biological Agents, Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA), D-44149 Dortmund, Germany.
Chair of Occupational Safety, School of Mechanical Engineering and Safety Engineering, University of Wuppertal, D-42119 Wuppertal, Germany.
Ann Work Expo Health. 2025 Jun 30;69(5):461-472. doi: 10.1093/annweh/wxaf015.
The assessment of the overall exposure of workers to hazardous substances is fundamental for their comprehensive protection. This includes oral exposure to hazardous substances, which can be relevant for total exposure depending on the specific workplace and substance. However, monitoring and available modelling approaches for a sound assessment of this exposure pathway are limited. The development of an occupational oral exposure assessment model requires knowledge of the contributing mechanisms, including worker behaviour and occupational hygiene practice. In addition, monitoring data on occupational oral exposure are a prerequisite for the evaluation of an exposure model.
A systematic literature review was conducted using the PRISMA method. Studies describing behaviours and occupational hygiene practices with regard to oral occupational exposure, and studies including measured data sets for the model evaluation were identified. The included data were then extracted and evaluated in a meta-analysis.
142 studies addressing oral occupational exposure were identified in the area of behaviour and occupational hygiene. Frequencies of hygiene practices were aggregated. The influence of worker training was investigated and the controllability of individual behaviour was described qualitatively. For the model evaluation, 9 publications were identified that included monitoring data for oral occupational exposure. These publications use 5 different sampling approaches and describe 4 different substance groups.
The systematic literature search on behaviour and occupational hygiene provides a partly quantitative basis for the model-based description of occupational oral exposure to hazardous substances. Oral exposure to hazardous substances cannot be prevented by good occupational hygiene practices alone, as a relevant part of the causal personal behaviour (eg touching the own face) is subconscious and can therefore not be avoided completely. The identified database serves as a basis for the later model evaluation. The usability of the data sets depends on whether the future model input parameters are documented in the studies.
评估工人对有害物质的总体暴露情况是对其进行全面保护的基础。这包括经口接触有害物质，根据具体工作场所和物质的不同，经口接触可能与总暴露相关。然而，用于合理评估这一暴露途径的监测和现有建模方法有限。开发职业性经口暴露评估模型需要了解其促成机制，包括工人行为和职业卫生实践。此外，职业性经口暴露的监测数据是评估暴露模型的先决条件。
采用PRISMA方法进行系统的文献综述。识别描述职业性经口暴露的行为和职业卫生实践的研究，以及包括用于模型评估的实测数据集的研究。然后提取纳入的数据并在荟萃分析中进行评估。
在行为和职业卫生领域识别出142项涉及职业性经口暴露的研究。汇总了卫生实践的频率。研究了工人培训的影响，并定性描述了个体行为的可控性。为进行模型评估，识别出9篇包含职业性经口暴露监测数据的出版物。这些出版物采用了5种不同的采样方法，并描述了4种不同的物质组。
关于行为和职业卫生的系统文献检索为基于模型描述职业性经口暴露于有害物质提供了部分定量依据。仅靠良好的职业卫生实践无法预防经口接触有害物质，因为因果性个人行为的一个相关部分（如触摸自己的脸）是潜意识的，因此无法完全避免。所识别的数据库为后续模型评估提供了基础。数据集的可用性取决于研究中是否记录了未来模型的输入参数。
