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Particle and Noise Exposure During Highway Maintenance Work
Citation:
Meier, R., B. Danuser, W. Cascio, AND M. Riediker. Particle and Noise Exposure During Highway Maintenance Work. Presented at INRS Occupational Health Research Conference 2012.
Impact/Purpose:
Exposure parameters will be compared to cardiovascular health endpoints of the maintenance workers (heart rate variability, pro-inflammatory and pro-thrombotic blood markers, blood pressure, lung function, exhaled nitric oxide).
Description:
Background: Exposure to traffic is associated with increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Traffic particles are associated with increased pro‑inflammatory and pro-thrombotic markers as well as altered heart rhythm (Riediker et al. 2004). Occupational noise exposure was found to significantly increase systolic blood pressure (van Kempen et al. 2002). Objectives: Assess the exposure of highway maintenance workers to traffic emissions with particular interest in particles and noise. Associate the exposure to different maintenance activities. Compare the exposure data with cardiovascular health endpoints (in a second step). Conclusions: Workers are frequently exposed to high concentrations of fine and ultrafine particles. Workers regularly encounter noise levels above 85dB[A]. The work task mowing causes extremely high particle levels that can exceed occupational exposure limits if done all day long. The low association between particles and noise should allow to differentiate between health outcomes related to these two exposure types; and to study potential combination-effects.