Management of Occupational Risk Prevention of Nanomaterials Manufactured in Construction Sites in the EU

Abstract

Currently, nanotechnology plays a key role for technological innovation, including the construction sector. An exponential increase is expected in its application, although this has been hampered by the current degree of uncertainty regarding the potential effects of nanomaterials on both human health and the environment. The accidents, illnesses, and disease related to the use of nanoproducts in the construction sector are difficult to identify. For this purpose, this work analyzes in depth the products included in recognized inventories and the safety data sheets of these construction products. Based on this analysis, a review of the recommendations on the use of manufactured nanomaterials at construction sites is performed. Finally, a protocol is proposed with the aim of it serving as a tool for technicians in decision-making management at construction sites related to the use of manufactured nanomaterials. This proposed protocol should be an adaptive and flexible tool while the manufactured nanomaterials-based work continues to be considered as an “emerging risk,” despite the expectation that the protocol will be useful for the development of new laws and recommendations for occupational risk prevention management.

The Relation between Environmental Risk Analysis and the Use of Nanomaterials in the Built Environment Sector: A Circular Economy Perspective

“…European Commission defines nanomaterials as a natural product or a product containing particles in an untied state either as an aggregate or agglomerate [9]. Lopez-Alonso et al (2020) say that nanotechnology plays a key role in technological innovation, including in the construction sector [10]. An exponential increase is expected in their application, although this has been hampered by the current uncertainty regarding the potential effects on human health and the environment [10].…”

“…In addition, there is no information on specific management measures and evaluation tools to evaluate the specific negative impacts. For these reasons, it is necessary to define a "non-complex protocol" as a preventive tool [10].…”

“…Regarding the weakness and threats, different studies say that the population is increasingly exposed to certain toxic effects caused by using these materials [10,13,15,16,21].…”

Analysis on Feasibility and Technology Transfer in Civil Construction

“…Forty-five million workers have been affected by WMSDs in Europe. In France, regarding occupational diseases in 2017, 91% of them were connected to WMSDs (López-Alonso et al, 2020). For these high rates to decrease, an Ergonomics integrated with construction sites and adapting workstations to workers are important elements.…”

Toxicity screening and ranking of diverse engineered nanomaterials using established hierarchical testing approaches with a complementary in vivo zebrafish model

“…Over the past two decades, nanotechnology has matured as an industry and has at its disposal an extensive and growing catalogue of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) that are being used in various consumer products. 1 ENMs tend to have a high surface area (100-1600 m 2 g −1 ), which often translates into unusually high surface reactivity relative to their microscopic counterparts, making them valuable in specialty applications, such as catalysis, environmental remediation, electronics, and renewable energy. [2][3][4][5][6][7] Metal and metal oxide nanomaterials (NMs) comprise over 80% of the overall engineered nanomaterial (ENM) market by volume, with some major ones being amorphous silica, titanium dioxide, copper/copper oxides, nickel/nickel oxides, and zinc oxide.…”