The use of nano-scale copper oxide (CuO) and basic copper carbonate (Cu₂(OH)₂CO₃) in both ionic and micronized wood preservatives has raised concerns about the potential of these substances to cause adverse humans health effects. To address these concerns, we performed quantitative (probabilistic) human health risk assessment (HHRA) along the lifecycles of these formulations used in antibacterial and antifungal wood coatings and impregnations by means of the EU FP7 SUN project’s Decision Support System (SUNDS, www.sunds.gd). The results from the risk analysis revealed inhalation risks from CuO in exposure scenarios involving workers handling dry powders and performing sanding operations as well as potential ingestion risks for children exposed to nano Cu₂(OH)₂CO₃ in a scenario involving hand-to-mouth transfer of the substance released from impregnated wood. There are, however, substantial uncertainties in these results, so some of the identified risks may stem from the safety margin of extrapolation to fill data gaps and might be resolved by additional testing. Our stochastic approach successfully communicated the contribution of different sources of uncertainty in the risk assessment. The main source of uncertainty was the extrapolation from short to long-term exposure, which was necessary due to the lack of (sub)chronic in vivo studies with CuO and Cu₂(OH)₂CO₃. Considerable uncertainties also stemmed from the use of default inter- and intra-species extrapolation factors.

中文翻译：

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纳米级铜基木质防腐剂生命周期中的定量人类健康风险评估

在离子型防腐剂和微粉化的木材防腐剂中均使用纳米级氧化铜（CuO）和碱性碳酸铜（Cu ₂（OH）₂ CO ₃）引起了人们对这些物质对人类健康造成不利影响的担忧。为了解决这些问题，我们通过欧盟FP7 SUN项目的决策支持系统（SUNDS，www.sunds），对用于抗菌和抗真菌木器涂料和浸渍的这些配方的生命周期进行了定量（概率）人类健康风险评估（HHRA）。 .gd）。风险分析的结果显示，在暴露场景中，CuO的吸入风险涉及工人处理干粉并进行打磨操作，以及暴露于纳米Cu的儿童的潜在摄入风险。₂（OH）₂ CO ₃在涉及从浸渍木材中释放出的物质从手到嘴转移的情况下。但是，这些结果存在很大的不确定性，因此，某些已确定的风险可能源于为填补数据空白而进行外推的安全余量，并且可能需要进行额外的测试才能解决。我们的随机方法成功地传达了风险评估中各种不确定性来源的影响。不确定性的主要来源是从短期到长期暴露的推断，这是必需的，因为缺乏使用CuO和Cu ₂（OH）₂ CO ₃进行的（亚）长期体内研究。不确定性还源于默认的物种间和物种内外推因子的使用。