Water-Based Automobile Paints Potentially Reduce the Exposure of Refinish Painters to Toxic Metals
by
Der-Jen Hsu 1, Shun-Hui Chung 2, Jie-Feng Dong 3, Hui-Chung Shih 4, Hong-Bin Chang 2 and Yeh-Chung Chien 5,*
Der-Jen Hsu 1, Shun-Hui Chung 2, Jie-Feng Dong 3, Hui-Chung Shih 4, Hong-Bin Chang 2 and Yeh-Chung Chien 5,*
1
Department of Safety, Health and Environmental Engineering, National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology, Kaohsiun 824, Taiwan
2
Institute of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health, Ministry of Labor, New Taipei City 221, Taiwan
3
Graduate Master Program in Safety, Health and Environmental Engineering, Department of Safety, Health and Environmental Engineering, National Yunlin University of Science and Technology, Douliu 640, Taiwan
4
Department of Safety, Health and Environmental Engineering, Hungkuang University of Science and Technology, Shalu 433, Taiwan
5
Department of Safety, Health and Environmental Engineering, National Yunlin University of Science and Technology, Douliu 640, Taiwan
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2018, 15(5), 899; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15050899
Received: 31 March 2018 / Revised: 27 April 2018 / Accepted: 28 April 2018 / Published: 3 May 2018
Exposure to lead-containing dusts is a global public health concern. This work addresses an important issue of whether eco-friendly water-based paints reduce the exposure potential of auto-repainting workers to metals. With this aim, metal levels in automobile paints and worker metal exposure were measured using both solvent- and water-based paints. The levels of metals, and particularly Pb, Cr (total), Fe, and Cu, in solvent-based paints varied greatly among colors and brands. Lead concentrations ranged from below the detection limit (~0.25 μg/g) to 107,928 μg/g (dry film) across all samples. In water-based paints, the concentrations of Pb and Cr (total) were generally two to three orders of magnitude lower, but the concentrations of Al and Cu exceeded those in some solvent-based paints. The personal short-term exposure of workers who applied water-based paints of popular colors, such as black and white, were generally low, with Pb levels of less than <4 µg/m3 and Cr (total) levels of less than 1 µg/m3. Conversely, mean short-term exposure to Pb during the painting of a yellow cab using solvent-based paints were 2028 µg/m3, which was ~14 times the Taiwan short-term permissible exposure limit, while the mean level of exposure to Cr (total) was 290 µg/m3, which was well below the exposure limit. This study demonstrates that water-based paints reduce the exposure potential to lead, and highlights the importance of source control in limiting the toxic metals in paints.
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Keywords:
paints; spray painting; toxic metals; lead; exposure assessment
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
Hsu, D.-J.; Chung, S.-H.; Dong, J.-F.; Shih, H.-C.; Chang, H.-B.; Chien, Y.-C. Water-Based Automobile Paints Potentially Reduce the Exposure of Refinish Painters to Toxic Metals. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2018, 15, 899.
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