Commonwealth of Australia 2000
Download 0.64 Mb.
|
- Navigate this page:
- Dermal exposure from acrylic fibres and other products
- Oral exposure from food packaging materials
- 7.3.2Exposure via the environment
7.3Public exposure7.3.1Consumer exposureAcrylonitrile is an industrial chemical which is not sold to the public. However, members of the public will make contact with a variety of products made from acrylonitrile such as polymer emulsions (used in paints, printing inks, caulks, sealants and textile coatings) and ABS, ABS/PC and SAN plastic articles (food packaging such as margarine container lids; components for telephones, computers, cars, refrigerators and air conditioners; bathroom fittings, pens and toys). In addition, public contact with acrylonitrile will occur when wearing fabrics made from fibres containing residual acrylonitrile. According to the European industry (HSA, 1998), acrylic fibre is currently hardly used in carpets, especially domestic carpets, and inhalation of acrylonitrile released from carpets is therefore considered to be negligible. As such, the main routes of public contact will be dermal (for example, with fabrics) and oral (consumption of food packaged in materials containing residual acrylonitrile). Dermal exposure from acrylic fibres and other productsAccording to the SIDS Initial Assessment Report (HSA, 1998), any residual acrylonitrile (generally <1 ppm) in acrylic fibres is tightly bound and its diffusion rate is low, even at elevated temperatures. If it is assumed that a consumer wears 1 kg of acrylic fibre (that is, 1 mg of residual acrylonitrile) in clothing and that all of the chemical is released over a period of 30 days, then the release per day would be 33 g. It is estimated that most of this would evaporate to the ambient air, with only 0.4% being absorbed through the skin, corresponding to an average daily load of 0.13 g or 2.2 ng/kg body weight/day for an adult woman weighing 60 kg. Dermal exposure to acrylonitrile from other products such as polymer emulsions and plastic articles used by the general public is likely to be negligible because of the slow migration and low content of residual monomer (<50 ppm, usually <10 ppm) and the sporadic nature of the contact. Oral exposure from food packaging materialsFoods may become contaminated with acrylonitrile as a result of the migration of the monomer from containers made from acrylonitrile polymers such as ABS (ANZFA, 1999). The ultimate level of acrylonitrile in the food depends on the contact time between the container and the food, the solubility of acrylonitrile in the food, and container parameters such as concentration of residual monomer, thickness and area exposed to the food, and is greater near the container walls than in the middle of the food. Acrylonitrile polymers are not used for the packaging of beverages in Australia (Huntsman, 1999). Reported levels of acrylonitrile in some packaged foods are shown in Table 10. Table 10: Levels of acrylonitrile in some packaged foods
In a worst-case scenario, a consumer may have a daily food intake of 1 kg, of which 5% (50 g) is packaged in acrylonitrile-containing containers. According to Table 10, this food could contain up to 35 ppb acrylonitrile, or about 2 g acrylonitrile. In relation to an adult man weighing 70 kg, this represents an intake of 30 ng/kg/day, for a 60 kg woman the intake would be 33 ng/kg/day, while for a 30 kg child it would be approximately 70 ng/kg/day. These estimates are conservative as according to ANZFA (1999) there is likely to be limited migration of the monomer from current packaging materials because food nowadays is packaged in vastly different, improved resins. 7.3.2Exposure via the environmentPublic exposure to acrylonitrile could also occur as a result of environmental release of the chemical from industrial sites. The European Union System for the Evaluation of Substances (EUSES) is an empirical model used to deliver estimates for a standard exposure scenario for organic compounds where measured data are not available. For acrylonitrile, EUSES provides values of 2.8 g/L for the concentration in drinking water, 0.071 g/m3 (0.00003 ppm) in air, 4.0 g/kg in wet fish, 1.3 x 10-4 g/kg in meat, 1.7 x 10-2 g/kg in plant leaves, and 1.3 x 10-3 g/L in milk (HSA, 1998). Based on these estimates, the following values are obtained for indirect exposure via the environment in the EUSES standard scenario:
There are no Australian data on the levels of acrylonitrile in drinking water, unprocessed foods or ambient air. However, the predicted environmental concentrations discussed in section 7.1 indicate that the above estimates are very conservative, possibly with the exception of populations living in the immediate vicinity of a facility that emits acrylonitrile to the environment. Directory: data -> assets -> word doc -> 0019 0019 -> Commonwealth of Australia 2002 0019 -> Rail safety news issue 6 – October 2011 0019 -> Social and economic benefits of improved adult literacy: Towards a better understanding Robyn Hartley Jackie Horne 0019 -> From: Virginia Holt [mailto: (personal contact details deleted) 0019 -> By Yvonne Hillier Introduction 0019 -> Communications alliance 0019 -> Allocations Manual Homeless with Support Category 0019 -> Inquiry into Vulnerable Road Users Inquiry into Vulnerable Road Users Download 0.64 Mb. Share with your friends:
|