Dermal exposure: how to get information

Risk assessment of chemical substances at the workplace requires information about intrinsic hazards and workers' exposure. At many workplaces health risks from both inhalative and dermal exposure to hazardous substances may occur. Exposure assessment therefore must include both modes of exposure. Very often, qualitative and quantitative information about dermal exposure is lacking. Measurement methods are of questionable quality when applied to monitoring dermal exposure at workplaces and the results are difficult to interpret. A questionnaire was designed for the description of dermal exposure situations taking into account the different factors influencing dermal exposure. In conjunction with an air monitoring survey in German car repair shops the questionnaire was applied by a hygienist. The hands of car mechanics are the most exposed parts of their bodies. The typical duration of tasks (and dermal exposure) was from either 5-10 minutes or up to about 1 hour. This corresponds to typical jobs in car repair shops like inspection and repair, respectively. In some cases other parts of the body are also exposed, for example, the face and forearms. Parts of the body may be covered by wetted or greasy clothes. Only in a few cases do mechanics clean their hands immediately after finishing a task. Normally, hands are cleaned at the end of a shift. The questionnaire was further developed for general application making use of multiple choice entries together with an explanatory manual. The questionnaire is still under development to be applied for a qualitative survey of dermal exposure as part of the European project RISKOFDERM.