合成皮作業勞工多種有機化合物暴露評估

Exposure Assessment of Multiple Organic Compounds for Workers in a Synthetic Leather Manufacturing Factory

張詠棋(Yung-Chi Chang)

指導教授 ： 吳俊德

長榮大學/健康科學學院/職業安全與衛生研究所/碩士(2006年)

https://doi.org/10.6833/CJCU.2006.00054

摘要

合成皮製造工廠作業勞工暴露於製程所產生的多種有機揮發化合物，近年來有關多種有害物質同時或連續暴露的研究顯示：多種化合物或混合物的暴露會改變單一物質的代謝情形，也可能造成不同於各別單一物質暴露的健康效應。本研究針對合成皮製造工廠作業勞工多種有機揮發化合物的暴露進行測定，以描述作業勞工所暴露有害物質的成分組成、暴露濃度高低和暴露實態；比較作業勞工多種揮發化合物暴露分別以觀察資料和測定資料所建立的相似暴露群組的分組差異；評估對作業現場的觀察記錄的製程特徵、勞工作業狀況、工作環境等因素，與暴露測定結果的關聯性，以確認有關暴露的決定因子。對勞工暴露觀察資訊分別以主觀判定法和群聚分析法劃分相似暴露群組，比較其結果發現：針對暴露觀察資料主觀判定所區分的9個相似暴露群組中的作業勞工，以在一年內所進行的4次暴露測定計算其暴露實態，結果顯示：在前後處理區作業勞工丁酮和甲苯的暴露濃度分別為46.07、17.11 ppm，與乾式製程作業勞工丁酮和甲苯的暴露濃度分別為39.14、25.52 ppm，均較濕式製程的作業勞工暴露濃度 7.67、2.23 ppm為高；作業勞工不論是在濕式、前後處理區與乾式製程的二甲基甲醯胺暴露濃度都超過了法定容許暴露濃度，其暴露濃度範圍分別為14.99、12.8和11.47 ppm。觀察法所區分的相似暴露群組的變異情形，進一步以 檢驗是否真正的相似暴露群組已被建立，結果發現：主觀判定法所區分的相似暴露群組，並不符合相似暴露群組的準則。從對8個作業勞工在一年內不同時間4次的暴露測定分析，顯示作業勞工暴露存在相當的時間變異，選擇穩定暴露時段(stationary exposure interval)進行暴露測定有其必要。以群聚分析建構作業勞工單一化合物暴露的相似暴露群組是有效的方法，尤其當暴露群組內成員多於6以上時會更具代表性。無論如何，單次暴露測定結果和多次暴露測定平均值所建構的相似暴露群組，群組內的成員還是存在相當的差異；多種化合物暴露的相似暴露群組，暴露群組內的相似性難以維持。如何對職業暴露建構穩定的相似暴露群組仍需更多研究。

關鍵字

相似暴露群組 ； 暴露實態 ； 多種化合物暴露 ； 群聚分析

並列摘要

Workers in synthetic leather manufacturing factories are exposed to multiple volatile organic compounds, for example, dimethylformamide (DMF), toluene, butyl acetate, methyl ethyl ketone, acetone, and ethyl acetate, etc. In recent years, researches relevant to simultaneous or sequential exposures to multiple hazardous agents have indicated that exposures to multiple agents or mixture can change the metabolic pathway of a hazardous agent and probably result in a different adverse health effect from that caused by single-agent exposure. In this study, we measured multiple agent exposures of workers in a synthetic leather manufacturing factory to characterize the composition and magnitude of exposure of the workers, to compare the differences of similar exposure groups (SEGs) based on observation information versus measurement data, and to assess the association between exposure measurements and exposure determinants including characteristics of manufacturing processes, work activities and work environment factors. The comparison of the SEGs obtained from subjective judgment and cluster analysis by using observation information of workers’ exposure suggested that many workers were classified into different SEGs. The exposure profiles of the SEGs based on the subjective judgment were derived from the exposure measurements taken in four different time periods in a year. The results showed that the exposure means of methyl ethyl ketone and toluene for the SEGs of pre- and post-treatment areas were 46.07 and 17.11 ppm, respectively; and those of the dry process were 39.14 and 25.52 ppm; these values were higher than the values of 7.67 and 2.23 ppm of the wet process. No matter in wet and dry processes or pre- and post-treatment areas, the exposure means of the SEGs were 14.99、12.8 and11.47 ppm, respectively, exceeding the permissible exposure level of DMF. The exposure variability of the SEGs was further examined by using to explore whether exposure homogeneity existed in the SEGs. The results indicated that none of the SEGs had homogeneous exposure no matter from the viewpoint of single- or multiple-agent exposure. The repeated exposure measurements for 8 workers at four different times showed that temporal variability for individual workers was large. To obtain better exposure profiles, the selection of stationary exposure intervals for exposure monitoring should be considered. Cluster analysis is a useful method of constructing the SEGs of single-agent exposure for workers. The SEGs will become more representative when SEGs have members greater than 6. However, the SEGs constructed by using single exposure measurements and repeated exposure measurements existed significant differences in the members of SEGs; and the SEGs constructed by multiple-agent exposure measurements could not maintain the exposure similarity of each exposure agent. More researches are needed on how to construct stable SEGs for occupational exposures.

並列關鍵字

similar exposure groups ； exposure profile ； multiple agent exposure ； cluster analysis

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