Health surveillance study of workers who manufacture multi-walled carbon nanotubes

Abstract

While many in vivo and in vitro toxicology studies of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) have already indicated that exposure to MWCNTs can potentially induce health effects in humans, the actual health effects of MWCNTs among exposed workers are not yet known. Moreover, the levels of exposure and internal doses of MWCNTs are becoming more and more important for estimating the health effects resulting from exposure to MWCNTs. However, information on biomonitoring and exposure to MWCNTs remains limited. Therefore, the authors conducted a health surveillance study in a workplace that manufactures MWCNTs, including assessment of the personal and area exposure levels to MWCNTs, a walk-through evaluation of the manufacturing process, and collection of blood and exhaled breath condensates (EBCs) from the MWCNT manufacturing and office workers. In addition, a pulmonary function test was also conducted on the MWCNT manufacturing workers (9) and office workers (4). The worker exposure to elemental carbon was found to be 6.2–9.3 μg/m3 in the personal samplings and 5.5–7.3 μg/m3 in the area samplings. Notwithstanding, the workers exhibited a normal range of hematology and blood biochemistry values and normal lung function parameters. When analyzing the EBCs, the malondialdehyde (MDA), 4-hydroxy-2-hexenal (4-HHE) and n-hexanal levels in the MWCNT manufacturing workers were significantly higher than those in the office workers. The MDA and n-hexanal levels were also significantly correlated with the blood molybdenum concentration, suggesting MDA, n-hexanal and molybdenum as useful biomarkers of MWCNT exposure.