Worker Exposures
Sorry I haven't posted again in a while. I fell on the ice and broke my arm. I'm sure ready for spring!
I frequently get e-mails from readers sharing their stories or asking me questions. Recently I received an email from a reader who explained that she had been exposed at work over a three-year period to industrial styrene, MEK peroxide and acetone. She wondered if these could have contributed to her health problems, which include shortness of breath, hoarseness, and stomach problems. The short answer is yes. I recommended that she search for an environmental doctor at the American Academy of Environmental Medicine website and contact an attorney who handles workmen's comp cases. She's done both and workmen's comp is now sending her to some specialists, so hopefully with attention she can get better. But I'd like to use her case as an example for other readers to learn how to gather information about the chemicals they may have been exposed to.
There are dozens of really great places online to learn about chemicals and what they might be doing to your health. Admittedly, some of them lead to information that requires a Ph.D. to understand, but there are a fair number that are geared toward regular people. For this kind of search I recommend starting with the scorecard.org website. Click on chemical profiles under health hazards and entered the name of the chemical that you're concerned with. I plugged styrene into the database. I learned that styrene is a suspected carcinogen, cardiovascular or blood toxicant, developmental toxicant, endocrine toxicant, gastrointestinal toxicant, immunotoxicant, kidney toxicant, neurotoxicant, reproductive toxicant, respiratory toxicant, and skin or sense organ toxicant. Clicking on the health hazards link for styrene, I learn that the worker exposure hazard score, which “indicate[s] how a chemical compares with other [chemicals] in terms of its capacity to impact the health of a factory worker,” is quite high.
Next I check MEK peroxide. It's a gastrointestinal toxicant, respiratory toxicant, and skin or sense organ toxicant. Acetone is a cardiovascular or blood toxicant, developmental toxicant, endocrine toxicant, gastrointestinal toxicant, kidney toxicant, neurotoxicant, reproductive toxicant, respiratory toxicant, and skin or sense organ toxicant. Of course, in this reader’s case she was being exposed to all three so there are cumulative and additive impacts.
For each chemical ScoreCard has multiple layers of information that allows you to drill down deeper and deeper. For example, for acetone I clicked the link to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry Public Health Statement. This brought me to a website that explains in fairly understandable language about acetone—how it enters the environment, how people may be exposed, what happens to it in the body, and what its effects on health are.
The good news is that today anyone can educate themselves using a service like ScoreCard. Here's few other points people should consider for workplace exposures:
1. The families of workers who are exposed in workplace often suffer from the same exposures as the family member who actually goes to work. This is because that family member comes home with their clothes Saturated in the chemicals. They go into the wash with the rest of the family's clothing, thus causing a sort of trickle-down exposure. As Dr. Bernhoft said in the post about detoxification, almost all chronic illnesses are the result of an interaction between genes and environment, so it is possible that the worker would not show symptoms from an exposure, yet a family member whose genetics are so disposed, would show symptoms from the family member’s exposure who goes to the workplace.
2. Exposures can also occur “across the fence line” for people living near industrial facilities that use chemicals. Want to learn if you're across the fence line from something? Is it EPA's toxic release inventory database where you can search by zip code to learn about larger industrial chemical users in your area.
3. Sometimes “industrial” is a misleading term. Workplace exposures can also come from small businesses such as welding shops or auto repair shops, painting businesses, art businesses, beauty salons, and other small businesses that people do not usually considered particularly hazardous.
4.From what I hear workmen's compensation officials may be less than fully knowledgeable about the health impacts of chemicals on workers. This is why I recommended the reader contact an attorney who handles comp cases. I think this is changing as both doctors and bureaucrats are becoming more educated about the impacts of even low-level exposures over long periods, but it is something to be aware of.
I frequently get e-mails from readers sharing their stories or asking me questions. Recently I received an email from a reader who explained that she had been exposed at work over a three-year period to industrial styrene, MEK peroxide and acetone. She wondered if these could have contributed to her health problems, which include shortness of breath, hoarseness, and stomach problems. The short answer is yes. I recommended that she search for an environmental doctor at the American Academy of Environmental Medicine website and contact an attorney who handles workmen's comp cases. She's done both and workmen's comp is now sending her to some specialists, so hopefully with attention she can get better. But I'd like to use her case as an example for other readers to learn how to gather information about the chemicals they may have been exposed to.
There are dozens of really great places online to learn about chemicals and what they might be doing to your health. Admittedly, some of them lead to information that requires a Ph.D. to understand, but there are a fair number that are geared toward regular people. For this kind of search I recommend starting with the scorecard.org website. Click on chemical profiles under health hazards and entered the name of the chemical that you're concerned with. I plugged styrene into the database. I learned that styrene is a suspected carcinogen, cardiovascular or blood toxicant, developmental toxicant, endocrine toxicant, gastrointestinal toxicant, immunotoxicant, kidney toxicant, neurotoxicant, reproductive toxicant, respiratory toxicant, and skin or sense organ toxicant. Clicking on the health hazards link for styrene, I learn that the worker exposure hazard score, which “indicate[s] how a chemical compares with other [chemicals] in terms of its capacity to impact the health of a factory worker,” is quite high.
Next I check MEK peroxide. It's a gastrointestinal toxicant, respiratory toxicant, and skin or sense organ toxicant. Acetone is a cardiovascular or blood toxicant, developmental toxicant, endocrine toxicant, gastrointestinal toxicant, kidney toxicant, neurotoxicant, reproductive toxicant, respiratory toxicant, and skin or sense organ toxicant. Of course, in this reader’s case she was being exposed to all three so there are cumulative and additive impacts.
For each chemical ScoreCard has multiple layers of information that allows you to drill down deeper and deeper. For example, for acetone I clicked the link to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry Public Health Statement. This brought me to a website that explains in fairly understandable language about acetone—how it enters the environment, how people may be exposed, what happens to it in the body, and what its effects on health are.
The good news is that today anyone can educate themselves using a service like ScoreCard. Here's few other points people should consider for workplace exposures:
1. The families of workers who are exposed in workplace often suffer from the same exposures as the family member who actually goes to work. This is because that family member comes home with their clothes Saturated in the chemicals. They go into the wash with the rest of the family's clothing, thus causing a sort of trickle-down exposure. As Dr. Bernhoft said in the post about detoxification, almost all chronic illnesses are the result of an interaction between genes and environment, so it is possible that the worker would not show symptoms from an exposure, yet a family member whose genetics are so disposed, would show symptoms from the family member’s exposure who goes to the workplace.
2. Exposures can also occur “across the fence line” for people living near industrial facilities that use chemicals. Want to learn if you're across the fence line from something? Is it EPA's toxic release inventory database where you can search by zip code to learn about larger industrial chemical users in your area.
3. Sometimes “industrial” is a misleading term. Workplace exposures can also come from small businesses such as welding shops or auto repair shops, painting businesses, art businesses, beauty salons, and other small businesses that people do not usually considered particularly hazardous.
4.From what I hear workmen's compensation officials may be less than fully knowledgeable about the health impacts of chemicals on workers. This is why I recommended the reader contact an attorney who handles comp cases. I think this is changing as both doctors and bureaucrats are becoming more educated about the impacts of even low-level exposures over long periods, but it is something to be aware of.
Labels: exposures
posted by Carol Ekarius @ 9:19 AM
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