Assessment of dermal exposure during airless spray painting using a quantitative visualisation technique

The range of dermal exposure to non-volatile compounds during spray paintin g was studied in a semi-experimental study involving three enterprises and 12 painters. ii fluorescent tracer was added to the paint and deposition of the tracer on clothing and uncovered parts of the skin was assessed using video imaging and processing techniques. A container (volume 36 m3) was spr ayed with a colourless laquer (varnish) containing 66.7 mg/l fluorescent wh itening agent, AII painters sprayed the outside of the container. Nine pain ters repeated the painting a second time and five also sprayed the inside o f the container. The painters wore white Tyvek(TM) coveralls, but no gloves . Duration of spraying the outside ranged from 4 to 21 min with a mean of 1 0 min and the amount of paint sprayed ranged from 3.0 to 12.8 l (mean 6.6 l ). The mass of tracer deposited on the coverall ranged from 2.2 to 471 mug (90th percentile 256 mug), whereas, mass deposited on skin (i.e. the hands, wrists, and face) ranged from 0.01 to 52 mug tracer (90th percentile 20 mu g) The quantity of tracer on the coverall was three times higher after spra ying the inside of the container compared to spraying the outside, whereas the quantity on the skin was similar in both cases. On average 10% of the s urface area of the coverall and skin was exposed during spraying the outsid e. Exposures, expressed in units of mass per area exposed were slightly hig her for skin compared to coverall. In this study, deposited mass of tracer was correlated with an alternative exposure metric, i.e. surface area exposed multiplied by the duration of ex posure, which has been proposed as a surrogate for uptake. Using a quantita tive fluorescent tracer technique, it could be demonstrated that body parts which showed the lowest mass of tracer had the highest exposure as mass pe r surface area. Compared to other techniques which only determine mass, the ability to identify and quantify the actual surface area exposed is a clea r advantage of the quantitative fluorescent tracer technique. (C) 2000 Brit ish Occupational Hygiene Society. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All ri ghts reserved.