EV@LUTIL: An open access database on occupational exposures to asbestos and man-made mineral fibres

Our plain-English summary of EV@LUTIL: An open access database on occupational exposures to asbestos and man-made mineral fibres, by E. Orlowski, S. Audignon-Durand, M. Goldberg, et al (American Journal of Industrial Medicine, 2015).

The study

• Authors: E. Orlowski, S. Audignon-Durand, M. Goldberg, E. Imbernon, P. Brochard
• Journal: American Journal of Industrial Medicine
• Published: 2015;58(10):1059-74
• Cited by: 6 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Abstract

Objectives: The aim of Evalutil is to document occupational exposure to asbestos and man-made mineral fibers.

Methods: These databases provide grouped descriptive and metrological data from observed situations of occupational exposure, collected through the analysis of scientific articles and technical reports by industrial hygienists.

Results: Over 5,000 measurements were collected. We describe the occupations, economic activities, fiber-containing products, and operations on them that have been documented most often. Graphical measurement syntheses of these data show that the situations presented for asbestos and RCF, except mineral wools, report fiber concentrations mainly above historical occupational exposure limits.

Conclusion: Free access to these data in French and in English on the Internet (https://ssl2.isped.u-bordeaux2.fr/eva_003/) helps public health and prevention professionals to identify and characterize occupational exposures to fibers. Extended recently to nanoscale particles, Evalutil continues to contribute to the improvement of knowledge about exposure to inhaled particles and the health risks associated with them.

© 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

In plain English

This article described Evalutil, a French database, free online in French and English, of workplace air measurements of asbestos and of man-made mineral fibres such as mineral wools and refractory ceramic fibres (RCF). It was not a study of disease. Industrial hygienists extracted the data from scientific articles and technical reports. The asbestos part held 2,466 documents from 753 articles or reports, covering 2,716 measurements. The man-made fibre part held 932 documents covering 2,418 measurements from 183 articles or reports. Only about one third of asbestos documents named the fibre type, most often chrysotile. The authors gave example summaries using personal samples. For motor-vehicle mechanics, 53.8% of asbestos measurements exceeded the most recent French limit of 0.1 fibres per millilitre (f/ml), determined with phase-contrast optical microscopy. For operations on gaskets, 57.8% exceeded it. For making finished RCF products, 76.7% were well above 0.1 f/ml. For installing mineral wool in construction, 78.3% were below 1 f/ml. The authors noted that sources varied in methods and detail, and they made no statistical estimates of exposure from them. The authors concluded that free access helps professionals identify and characterize workplace fibre exposures.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Description of an exposure-measurement database compiled from published scientific articles and technical reports (not an epidemiological study of disease)
• Who was studied: Asbestos database: 2,466 documents from 753 articles or measurement reports, covering 2,716 measurements. Man-made mineral fibre (MMMF) database: 932 documents covering 2,418 measurements from 183 articles or reports. Sources came from diverse countries, mainly Europe and North America. The program began in 1992.
• Exposure: Occupational airborne exposure to asbestos and to man-made mineral fibres. Only one third of asbestos documents gave the fibre type, chrysotile most often. The man-made fibres were mineral wools, refractory ceramic fibres, continuous glass filaments and special-purpose glass fibres. Concentrations were recorded in fibres per millilitre of air.
• Main results:
  • The MMMF database contained 932 documents covering 2,418 measurements from 183 articles or reports.
  • Construction workers were the occupation whose exposure levels were studied most often, for asbestos and MMMF together.
  • In the asbestos database, machining was the operation with the most measurements.
  • The example syntheses used only personal samples with at least a mean concentration. For the motor-vehicle mechanic, 53.8% of asbestos concentrations exceeded the most recent French occupational exposure limit of 0.1 f/ml, determined with phase-contrast optical microscopy (PCOM). For operations on gaskets, 57.8% exceeded it.
  • For the manufacture of finished products containing RCF, 76.7% of reported concentrations were well above the current French limit of 0.1 f/ml.
  • For installation of mineral wool insulation products in construction, 78.3% of concentrations were in the lowest category, below the current limit of 1 f/ml.
  • For operations on asbestos-based gaskets, measured concentrations ranged from 0.01 f/ml to more than 10 f/ml.
  • On the information quality indicator, nearly 80% of documents in the asbestos database were rated very satisfactory, and almost 90% in the MMMF database.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that free internet access to these data helps public health and prevention professionals identify and characterize occupational exposures to fibres.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The type of asbestos fibre was not systematically reported in the source documents.
  • Some sources did not specify sampling and counting methods or did not use reference methods.
  • Variability in exposure levels for the same work situation makes it difficult to judge how representative a document is.
  • Because measurement protocols varied and the data were not exhaustive, the authors performed no statistical treatment or estimates of the information extracted from the source articles and reports.
  • Measurements of MMMF exposure during work on worn or used materials are sparse.
  • The information cannot replace careful professional analysis of each particular work situation.

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Occupational Exposure, Mineral Fiber.

Related studies

• Occupational exposure to mineral fibres: analysis of results stored on colchic database — E. Kauffer, R. Vincent (2007)
• Development of an exposure measurement database on five lung carcinogens (ExpoSYN) for quantitative retrospective occupational exposure assessment — S. Peters, R. Vermeulen, et al. (2012)
• Assessment of bibliographic databases performance in information retrieval for occupational and environmental toxicology — J.F. Gehanno, C. Paris, et al. (1998)
• Respiratory health effects of man-made vitreous (mineral) fibres — P. De Vuyst, P. Dumortier, et al. (1995)
• Integrating workplace exposure databases for occupational medicine services and epidemiologic studies at a former nuclear weapons facility — A.J. Ruttenber, J.S. McCrea, et al. (2001)
• Man-made mineral fibers and interstitial lung diseases — E. Fireman (2014)

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