Temporal trends in respirable dust and respirable quartz concentrations within the European industrial minerals sector over a 15-year period (2002–2016)

Abstract

ObjectivesSince 2000 the European Industrial Minerals Association’s Dust Monitoring Programme (IMA-DMP) has systematically collected respirable dust and respirable quartz measurements from 35 companies producing industrial minerals. The IMA-DMP initiative allowed for estimating overall temporal trends in exposure concentrations for the years 2002–2016 and for presenting these trends by type of mineral produced, by jobs performed and by time of enrolment into the DMP.MethodsApproximately 32 000 personal exposure measurements were collected during 29 sampling campaigns during a 15-year period (2002–2016). Temporal trends in respirable dust and respirable quartz concentrations were studied by using linear mixed effects models.ResultsConcentrations varied widely (up to three to four orders of magnitude). However, overall decreases in exposure levels were shown for the European minerals industry over the 15-year period. Statistically significant overall downward temporal trends of −9.0% and −3.9% per year were observed for respirable dust and respirable quartz, respectively. When analyses were stratified by time period, no downward trends (and even slight increasing concentrations) were observed between 2008 and 2012, most likely attributable to the recent global economic crisis. After this time period, downward trends became visible again.ConclusionsConsistent and statistically significant downward trends were found for both exposure to respirable dust and respirable quartz. These downward trends became less or even reversed during the years of the global economic crisis. To our knowledge, this is the first time that analyses of long-term temporal trends point at an effect of a global economic crisis on personal exposure concentrations of workers from sites across Europe.

Development of a Web-Based Tool for Risk Assessment and Exposure Control Planning of Silica-Producing Tasks in the Construction Sector

“…An initial literature review and environmental scan revealed related similar types of services such as on-line qualitative exposure control plan generators (e.g., Center for Protection of Worker Rights ( 18 ), task-specific exposure duration guidelines ( 19 ), “first tier” REACH tools ( 20 ) and higher-level surveillance efforts such as the European Industrial Minerals Association's “Dust Monitoring Programme” in Europe ( 21 ). None of the available tools satisfied the specific requirements of the BC situation, leaving a knowledge gap, and an opportunity for development of an end-user exposure data management tool.…”

Commentary

“…9 The Industrial Minerals Association-Dust Monitoring Programme, has been ongoing since 2000 and provides quantitative insights into differences in respirable dust and quartz exposures between middle-income and high-income countries. 10 In the SYNERGY project, time-specific, job-specific and regionspecific quantitative exposure levels for four carcinogens (asbestos, chromium-VI, nickel and quartz) were estimated based on thousands of personal measurements collected in Europe and Canada. 11 Exposure information collected in general population case-control studies and cohort studies have been used to develop (population-specific) job exposure matrices and could also be used to develop more precise estimates of exposure prevalence by industry.…”

“…17 Differences in measured respirable crystalline silica across countries provide another illustrative example of the same concept. Zilaout and colleagues 10 analysed almost 26 000 respirable dust and 23 000 respirable quartz measurements from 35 industrial mineral companies from 154 sites located in 23 countries (19 high-income and 4 middle-income countries) collected between 2002 and 2016. Geometric mean respirable dust concentrations per job per site over time varied over three orders of magnitude from 0.01 to 10 mg/ m 3 .…”

“…It was also demonstrated that downward temporal trends in average exposure concentrations were time dependent, occurred also in middle-income countries and were halted and even reversed in times of unfortunate macroeconomic developments. 10…”

“… 9 The Industrial Minerals Association-Dust Monitoring Programme, has been ongoing since 2000 and provides quantitative insights into differences in respirable dust and quartz exposures between middle-income and high-income countries. 10 In the SYNERGY project, time-specific, job-specific and region-specific quantitative exposure levels for four carcinogens (asbestos, chromium-VI, nickel and quartz) were estimated based on thousands of personal measurements collected in Europe and Canada. 11 …”