Abstract

In the decade since the last published comprehensive report of occupational exposures in the glass wool insulation industry, many process and regulatory changes have occurred in the glass wool manufacturing sector. This paper assesses whether any significant changes in worker exposures to glass wool fibers have resulted from these process and regulatory changes. The analysis compares worker exposures to glass wool overall and across different product and job categories in the manufacturing sector prior to and after 2007, the data cutoff period for the last comprehensive update of occupational exposures in this industry. The exposure data were downloaded from the North American Insulation Manufacturers Association’s synthetic vitreous fiber (SVF) exposure database, which has been continually updated with all new available SVF exposure data for the past two decades. This analysis finds no major changes in worker exposures in the glass wool manufacturing industry over the past decade, with exposures remaining well below the 1 f/cc voluntary permissible exposure limit.

摘要

自上次发布玻璃棉保温行业职业暴露综合报告以来的十年里，玻璃棉制造行业发生了许多工艺和监管变化。本文评估了这些工艺和监管变化是否导致了工人接触玻璃棉纤维的显着变化。该分析比较了 2007 年（该行业职业暴露最新全面更新的数据截止期）前后制造业不同产品和工作类别中工人对玻璃棉的总体暴露情况。暴露数据是从北美绝缘制造商协会的合成玻璃纤维 (SVF) 暴露数据库下载的，该数据库在过去二十年中不断更新所有新的可用 SVF 暴露数据。该分析发现，在过去十年中，玻璃棉制造行业工人的暴露量没有发生重大变化，暴露量仍远低于 1 f/cc 自愿允许的暴露限值。