Diesel Exposure in Mines: Biomarkers in Urine and Realtime Air Monitoring

描述（由申请人提供）：柴油机废气（DE）暴露水平升高是普遍存在的，并与不良健康结局有关，包括呼吸道刺激、心血管疾病、免疫功能障碍和肺癌。国际癌症研究机构最近将DE归类为人类致癌物质（第1组）;这是基于暴露与肺癌风险增加相关的充分证据。然而，DE暴露指标的特异性和可靠性的局限性阻碍了DE暴露与不良健康结果之间联系的定量评价。因此，迫切需要开展研究，提高我们可靠评估DE个人暴露的能力，以了解DE暴露与疾病之间的关系，并支持制定以科学为基础的暴露标准，以充分保护工人的健康。在所有职业中，地下矿工暴露于DE的程度最高。因此，矿工因接触DE而遭受不利健康影响的风险很高。目前项目的总体目标是评估地下矿工接触DE的新方法。具体目标是：（1）确定经MSHA批准的微撞击器与颗粒质量浓度、颗粒数量浓度和CO的实时测量之间的关联;（2）确定新设计的个人和固定位置无线遥感器网络的可靠性，以提供DE暴露替代物的实时测量，包括颗粒数量浓度;（3）确定DE特异性化学物质1-硝基芘（1-NP）的尿代谢物是否是个体工人暴露于DE的可靠量度。我们建议的研究涉及采矿业，以及NIOSH在暴露评估和呼吸系统疾病方面的跨部门计划。该项目的成果是新的接触监测方法（尿液生物标志物、DE实时测量、用于接触监测的无线传感器阵列），这些方法将提供对矿工接触DE的更好估计-可能比MSHA批准的微冲击器技术成本低得多。改进的暴露评估方法反过来将有助于评估与这些暴露相关的疾病负担，以及最近减少矿工暴露于DE的干预措施的有效性（例如引入生物柴油和发动机排放控制装置）（项目成果）。从研究到实践：这些研究将评估可靠性， 在真实世界条件下，新型暴露监测工具的准确性和易用性。收集到的关于矿山中DE浓度的数据将与矿山工业化学家共享，并可用于确定DE暴露可能接近危险水平的任何地点或活动，并在必要时采取纠正措施。此外，通过这种数据共享，矿山运营商将熟悉我们在本研究中评估的新型暴露监测工具。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Elevated exposure to diesel exhaust (DE) is widespread and has been linked to adverse health outcomes including respiratory irritation, cardiovascular disease, immune dysfunction and lung cancer. IARC recently classified DE as carcinogenic to humans (Group 1); based on sufficient evidence that exposure is associated with an increased risk for lung cancer. However, limitations in the specificity and reliability of metrics of DE exposure hamper quantitative evaluation of links between DE exposure and adverse health outcomes. Therefore, studies which improve our ability to reliably assess personal exposure to DE are critically required to understand the relationship between DE exposures and disease, and to support the setting of science-based exposure standards that adequately protect the health of workers. Underground miners experience amongst the highest exposures to DE of any occupation. Thus, miners are at high risk for suffering adverse health effects associated with DE exposure. The overall goal of the current project is to evaluate novel approaches for assessing the exposure of underground miners to DE. The specific aims are: (1) Determine the association between the MSHA-approved DPM impactor and real-time measurements of particle mass concentration, particle number concentration and CO; (2) Determine the reliability of a newly designed network of personal and fixed-location wireless remote sensors to provide real-time measurements of surrogates for DE exposure including particle number concentration; and (3) Determine whether urinary metabolites of the DE- specific chemical 1-nitropyrene (1-NP) are a reliable measure of individual workers exposure to DE. Our proposed research addresses the mining sector, and NIOSH's cross-sector programs in exposure assessment and respiratory diseases. The outputs from this project are new exposure monitoring approaches (urinary biomarkers, real-time measures of DE, wireless sensor arrays for exposure monitoring) that will provide improved estimation of miner's exposure to DE- likely at significantly lower cost than the MSHA-approved DPM impactor technology. The improved exposure assessment methods will in turn facilitate evaluation of the burden of disease associated with these exposures, and the effectiveness of recent interventions to reduce miner's exposures to DE (e.g. introduction of biodiesel and engine emission control devices) (the project outcomes). Research to practice: These studies will evaluate the reliability, accuracy and ease of use of the novel exposure monitoring tools in the field under real-world conditions. Data collected regarding DE concentrations in the mine will be shared with the mine industrial hygienist, and can be used to identify any locations or activities where DE exposures may approach hazardous levels, and take corrective action where necessary. Furthermore, through this sharing of data, the mine operators will become familiar with the novel exposure monitoring tools that we are evaluating in this research.