Annals of Occupational Hygiene Advance Access published online on March 29, 2006
Annals of Occupational Hygiene, doi:10.1093/annhyg/mel013
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1 Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Helsinki, Finland
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. The aim of this study was to estimate occupational exposure to inhalable wood dust by country, industry, the level of exposure and type of wood dust in 25 member states of the European Union (EU-25) for the purposes of hazard control, exposure surveillance and assessment of health risks. National labour force statistics, a country questionnaire (in 15 member states, EU-15), a company survey (in Finland, France, Germany and Spain), exposure measurements (from Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom) and expert judgements were used to generate preliminary estimates of exposure to different types of wood dust. The estimates were generated according to industrial class (six wood industries, four other sectors) and level of exposure (five classes). These estimates were reviewed and finalized by national experts from 15 member states. Crude estimates were generated also for 10 new member states (EU-10). The basic data and final estimates were included in the WOODEX database. In 2000-2003, about 3.6 million workers (2.0% of the employed EU-25 population) were occupationally exposed to inhalable wood dust. Of those, construction employed 1.2 million exposed workers (33%), mostly construction carpenters. The numbers of exposed workers were 700 000 (20%) in the furniture industry, 300 000 (9%) in the manufacture of builders' carpentry, 200 000 (5%) in sawmilling, 150 000 (4%) in forestry and <100 000 in other wood industries. In addition, there were 700 000 exposed workers (20%) in miscellaneous industries employing carpenters, joiners and other woodworkers. The numbers of exposed workers varied by country ranging from <3000 in Luxembourg and Malta to 700 000 in Germany. The highest exposure levels were estimated to occur in the construction sector and furniture industry. Due to limited exposure data there was considerable uncertainty in the estimates concerning construction woodworkers. About 560 000 workers (16% of the exposed) may be exposed to a level exceeding 5 mg m-3. Mixed exposure to more than one species of wood and dust from wooden boards was very common, but reliable data on exposure to different species of wood could not be retrieved. This kind of assessment procedure integrating measurement data, company data, country-specific data and expert judgement could also serve as one model for the assessment of other occupational exposures.
Received December 2, 2005
Accepted January 27, 2006
Article
Occupational Exposure to Inhalable Wood Dust in the Member States of the European Union
Timo Kauppinen 1 *,
Raymond Vincent 2,
Tuula Liukkonen 3,
Michel Grzebyk 2,
Antti Kauppinen 1,
Irma Welling 3,
Pedro Arezes 4,
Nigel Black 5,
Frank Bochmann 6,
Filipe Campelo 4,
Manuel Costa 4,
Gerhard Elsigan 7,
Robert Goerens 8,
Anastasia Kikemenis 9,
Hans Kromhout 10,
Sérgio Miguel 4,
Dario Mirabelli 11,
Roisin McEneany 12,
Beate Pesch 13,
Nils Plato 14,
Vivi Schlünssen 15,
Johannes Schulze 6,
Roland Sonntag 6,
Violaine Verougstraete 16,
Maria Angeles de Vicente 17,
Joachim Wolf 6,
Marta Zimmermann 18,
Kirsti Husgafvel-Pursiainen 1,
and
Kai Savolainen 1
2 Institut National de Recherche et de Sécurité, Nancy, France
3 Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Lappeenranta, Finland
4 University of Minho, Braga, Portugal
5 Health and Safety Executive, Nottingham, UK
6 Holz-Berufsgenossenschaft, Munich, Germany
7 PPM Research and Consulting, Linz, Austria
8 Direction de la Santé, Luxembourg, Luxembourg
9 National School of Public Health, Athens, Greece
10 Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
11 Università di Torino, Torino, Italy
12 Health and Safety Authority, Dublin, Ireland
13 Berufsgenossenschaftliches Forschungsinstitut für Arbeitsmedizin, Bochum, Germany
14 Arbets- och Miljömedicin, Stockholm, Sweden
15 Sygehus Viborg, Skive, Denmark
16 Catholic University of Louvain, Brussels, Belgium
17 Instituto Nacional de Seguridad e Higiene en el Trabajo, Madrid, Spain
18 Public Health DG, Madrid, Spain
Timo Kauppinen, E-mail: timo.kauppinen{at}ttl.fi
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