Prevention-through-design approach to mitigate workers’ exposure in the graphene production processes

Abstract

The growing development of new and advanced nanomaterials calls for a responsible approach to evaluate and prevent health and safety risks for workers, who could be exposed in their whole life cycle. Since many uncertainties still remain about health effects and as long as occupational exposure limits will not be available, Prevention-through-Design (PtD) approach may be proposed as a framework aimed at preventing risks, taking into account health and safety aspects starting from the design stages of innovation production processes. PtD principles could be applied to NMs, including strategies to mitigate emissions and minimize risks related to the manufacturing and use. In the present study, this approach has been successfully applied to different case studies of graphene-based NMs production in research and development laboratories, with promising applications in the transition towards the industrial scale. The methodology includes the integration of ISO control banding tool and OECD multi-metric and tiered approach to assess exposure by inhalation, improving the reliability of risk analysis framework. The findings support the complementary use of qualitative and quantitative data to identify tailored control measures and prevent risks in parallel with the development of NMs production processes, by giving also the opportunity to evaluate their effectiveness.