Range-Finding Risk Assessment of Inhalation Exposure to Nanodiamonds in a Laboratory Environment

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

Antti J. Koivisto²  Jaana E. Palomäki²  Anna-Kaisa Viitanen²  Kirsi M. Siivola²  Ismo K. Koponen³  Mingzhou Yu⁴  Tomi S. Kanerva²  Hannu Norppa²  Harri T. Alenius²  Tareq Hussein¹  Kai M. Savolainen² 

[1] Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, The University of Jordan, Amman JO-11942, Jordan;Nanosafety Research Centre, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Topeliuksenkatu 41 a A, FI-00250 Helsinki, Finland; E-Mails:;National Research Centre for the Working Environment, Lersø Parkallé 105, Copenhagen DK-2100, Denmark; E-Mail:;Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Fenghui Road, Xi’an 710075, China; E-Mail:

关键词: nanomaterial;    occupational hygiene;    source characterization;    exposure assessment;    dose assessment;    in vitro;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ijerph110505382

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

This study considers fundamental methods in occupational risk assessment of exposure to airborne engineered nanomaterials. We discuss characterization of particle emissions, exposure assessment, hazard assessment with in vitro studies, and risk range characterization using calculated inhaled doses and dose-response translated to humans from in vitro studies. Here, the methods were utilized to assess workers’ risk range of inhalation exposure to nanodiamonds (NDs) during handling and sieving of ND powder. NDs were agglomerated to over 500 nm particles, and mean exposure levels of different work tasks varied from 0.24 to 4.96 µg·m⁻³ (0.08 to 0.74 cm⁻³). In vitro-experiments suggested that ND exposure may cause a risk for activation of inflammatory cascade. However, risk range characterization based on in vitro dose-response was not performed because accurate assessment of delivered (settled) dose on the cells was not possible. Comparison of ND exposure with common pollutants revealed that ND exposure was below 5 μg·m⁻³, which is one of the proposed exposure limits for diesel particulate matter, and the workers’ calculated dose of NDs during the measurement day was 74 ng which corresponded to 0.02% of the modeled daily (24 h) dose of submicrometer urban air particles.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2014 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.