Critical working tasks and determinants of exposure to bioaerosols and MVOC at composting facilities.

Airborne bioaerosols and Microbial Volatile Organic Compounds (MVOC) concentrations were simultaneously monitored at a composting facility and the main determinants of atmospheric concentrations were characterised, in order to help protect workers from potential adverse health effects. Microorganisms and MVOC were sampled during various process stages and working tasks, both on site at the two units (green waste and biowaste), and at the border of the composting facility. Ambient monitorings were performed at sampling points deemed representative of occupational exposures for critical working tasks, and additional individual samplings were done on workers for MVOC.

Municipal waste incinerators: air and biological monitoring of workers for exposure to particles, metals, and organic compounds.

Aims: To evaluate occupational exposure to toxic pollutants at municipal waste incinerators (MWIs).

Methods: Twenty nine male subjects working near the furnaces in two MWIs, and 17 subjects not occupationally exposed to combustion generated pollutants were studied. Individual air samples were taken throughout the shift; urine samples were collected before and after.

Exposure to carcinogenic air pollutants among policemen working close to traffic in an urban area.

Objective: This study evaluates individual airborne exposure to gaseous and particulate carcinogenic pollutants in a group of policemen working close to traffic in the center of Grenoble, France.

Methods: Sixty-two personal active air samples were collected during the workshifts of eight policemen in summer and in winter during the occurrence of the thermal inversion phenomenon. Seventeen stationary air samples were monitored in the policemen's work area during the same period with the same sampling devices as used for the personal samples.

Urinary hexane diamine as an indicator of occupational exposure to hexamethylene diisocyanate.

The occupational exposure of 19 men to hexamethylene diisocyanate (HDI) vapour was monitored during one 8-h shift. It ranged from 0.30 to 97.

Environmental stresses and strains in an extreme situation: the repair of electrometallurgy furnaces.

Whenever continuous casting furnace breaks down, the emergency intervention necessary to repair it has to be carried out under exceptional environmental conditions caused mainly by heat, as the furnace must be stopped for the shortest possible time. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the stresses and strains to which boilermakers are subjected during the replacement of an electrode element of a 20 MW furnace. The thermal stress was evaluated by the wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT) index.

[Levels of lead, cadmium and mercury in the hair of inhabitants of the Nantes and Grenoble areas].

Lead, cadmium and mercury were measured in the air of 398 inhabitants of the Grenoble area and 341 inhabitants of the Nantes area. The hair was washed with hor solution of EDTA, dissolved in nitric acid and analyzed by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry. The average concentrations are 6,23 micrograms/g for lead, 0,40 microgram/g for cadmium and 1,06 microgram/g for mercury.

[Exposure to anesthetic gases: risk and prevention].

Several studies published during the last fifteen years seem to demonstrate that major risks, i.e. congenital malformations in the offspring and increased rate of spontaneous abortions, are associated with occupational exposure to anesthetic gases (halothane and nitrous oxide) in operating rooms.