Laboratory activities involving nanomaterials: risk assessment and investigating researchers symptoms

Abstract

The increasing use of nanomaterials is a threat to human health and environment that has led to the expansion of risk assessment methods. Thus, the aim of this study was to assess the occupational risks of activities involving nanomaterials in nanomedicine research laboratories by Control Banding (CB) NanoTool and Guidance methods. Further, the symptoms of researchers working in these laboratories were investigated. This cross-sectional study was managed in nanomedicine research laboratories. Risk assessment was performed by the CB NanoTool and Guidance methods. Moreover, a questionnaire was used to assess the prevalence of non-specific symptoms. Finally, data were analyzed using the IBM SPSS software. Descriptive statistics were used for data analysis. Many activities are located on the risk level RL2 and category A based on the CB NanoTool and Guidance methods, respectively. Further, the highest severity of exposure to nanomaterials belonged to the preparation of suspension and emulsion and manufacture of metal nanopolymers, but the highest probability of exposure was in the manufacturing of carbon nanocomposites. In addition, there was a significant relationship between the level of risk in the two methods (P = 0.003). Although, cutaneous symptoms were the most common symptoms among laboratory researchers, chi-square test did not confirm any significant relationship between symptoms and risk levels (p-value >0.05) in these two methods. Since the NanoTool method uses more diverse parameters for risk assessment and is more acceptable, choosing control measures based on its results seems more reasonable. Moreover, Guidance can be used as a method for initial assessments and determine the need for further assessments.