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[A simple method for risk assessment and its application to 1,3-butadiene]
C Zocchetti1, Angela C Pesatori, P A Bertazzi
1Osservatorio Epidemiologico e Sistemi di Remunerazione, Direzione Generale Sanità, Regione Lombardia, Milano. Carlo_Zocchetti@regione.lombardia.it
La Medicina Del Lavoro
|December 15, 2004
Summary
Occupational exposure to 1,3-butadiene, a probable carcinogen, may increase leukaemia risk. This study quantines excess leukaemia deaths from lifetime exposure to various concentrations, aiding risk assessment for setting occupational exposure limits.
Area of Science:
- Occupational Health
- Toxicology
- Risk Assessment
Background:
- 1,3-butadiene is a probable human carcinogen.
- Risk assessment was conducted for the European Commission's Scientific Committee on Occupational Exposure Limits (SCOEL).
- Data on cumulative exposures and leukaemia risks in humans were sourced from existing literature.
Purpose of the Study:
- To conduct a risk assessment for 1,3-butadiene exposure.
- To evaluate potential excess leukaemia deaths associated with occupational exposure.
- To inform the establishment of health-based occupational exposure limits.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a life-table approach to model leukaemia mortality by age.
- Applied various excess relative risk models to estimate cancer risk.
- Calculated excess leukaemia deaths based on different exposure levels (0.1-10 ppm) over a working lifetime.
Main Results:
- A lifetime occupational exposure to 1 ppm of 1,3-butadiene could cause 0 to 7.1 extra leukaemia deaths per 1,000 males.
- These excess deaths are in addition to baseline leukaemia mortality.
- Risk estimates were provided for a range of exposure concentrations.
Conclusions:
- The developed method is applicable to carcinogenic agents with available dose-response data.
- This approach can predict risks when health-based limit values cannot be established.
- Findings align with previous risk assessments using similar methodologies.