Suchergebnisse

Abstract
Isothiazolinoes (ITZs) are chemical compounds that are used as biocides in consumer products such as paints, cleaning spray, shampoo, soap etc. ITZ have skin-sensitizing properties that are well established. However, there are still questions regarding the occupational exposure among professional workers. To assess the airway exposure of ITZ, there was a need for development of exposure measurement methods. This has recently been developed at Occupational and environmental health, Gothenburg.
An occupational group that are exposed to ITZ both via skin and airways are professional painters. Therefore, it was an interesting group for testing the exposure measurement method. The exposure measurements for ITZ in air were tested in field on five professional painters with repeated measurements between April 2022 – June 2022 (N=66) working with restorative painting of apartments in Gothenburg. Stationary measurements were performed during both day (N=34) and night (N=15). In addition, product samples (N=29) were taken on products such as paints, putties, and sealants. Quantitative analysis of Metylisothiazolinone (MIT), chloromethylisothaizolinone (CMIT) and benzisothiazolinone (BIT) was performed with HPLC-UV.
The results show the determinants for exposure were type of work task, which products that were used and the concentration of MIT, CMIT and BIT in the products. Especially grinding of patty was a work task that resulted in higher exposures of ITZ. The stationary measurements overnight indicate that ITZ is emitted after working hours.

Abstract

Background
Water based paint has improved the work environment during occupational as well as domestic painting. Development of water-based paint formulations demanded an addition of anti-fungal/anti-microbial preservatives, and isothiazolinones (ITZ) have been frequently utilized over the last two decades. Isothiazolinones are known to cause skin sensitization and is furthermore suspected to cause problems from the respiratory tract. To assess professional painters' exposure to air-borne ITZ, there is a need to develop an easy-to-use light-weight portable sampling technique of the three most abundant ITZ.


Method
Three different designs of SPE-samplers and three different chemistries were evaluated regarding resistance to flow, handling during sampling, analyte break-through and sample elution. The quantification was performed using RP-HPLC-UV.


Results
SPE-samplers are easy-to-use in a field setting. However, only the novel disc-type designs of SPE worked with the portable pumps because of the relatively low pressure drop over the disc. SPE disks can be obtained either as a syringe-type or as a filter-type. While the syringe-type can be used straight away the filter-type has to be mounted in a sampler. However, the latter design outperformed the former regarding sampling as well as elution procedure.


Conclusion
The novel design of SPE-discs works well for sampling of ITZ down to 1 nmol/m3 (0.15 µg/m3) when sampling for 8 hours. It is thereby possible to assess workers' exposure to air concentrations of ITZ previously reported using impinger flasks.