Occupational exposure to carbon black in its manufacture: data from 1987 to 1992

Carbon black is a very pure form of very finely divided particulate carbon used mainly in the automotive tyre industry. Its carbonaceous nature and submicron size (unpelleted) have raised concerns with regard to its ability to affect respiratory morbidity. This paper describes the exposure to carbon black dust in the first and second phase of a large multi-national epidemiological study investigating the magnitude of these exposure-related effects. In Phase I, 1278 respirable dust samples were taken (SIMPEDS cyclone) which increased to 2941 in Phase II with a similar rise in the number of total inhalable dust samples (IOM head) from 1288 in Phase I to 3433 Phase II. Exposure dropped markedly between the two phases with total inhalable dust showing a bigger reduction (49.9%) than respirable dust (42%), although the mean exposure for certain factories and job categories dropped more than others. The data are presented by the 14 job titles/numbers (21-34). The highest mean exposure in both phases and for both dust fractions is experienced by the warehouse packers and they are also most likely to exceed the OES of 3.5 mg m-3 (35.1% of samples in Phase I and 12.0% in Phase II).