228c - Wristbands, hair and biomonitoring – How relevant are these alternative tools for internal dose evaluation?

Abstract Occupational biomonitoring studies performed under European Human Biomonitoring Initiative (HBM4EU) and Partnership for the Assessment of Risks from Chemicals (PARC) are intended to support European circular economy strategies and identify challenges related to occupational health and safety. Workers involved in the e-waste recycling are potentially exposed to a wide variety of toxic chemicals. In this context, apart from the more classical industrial hygiene (dust fraction, wipes) and biomonitoring (urine and blood) matrices, alternative matrices like silicon wristbands, SWB; floor settled dust, FSD (for industrial hygiene measurement); and hair (for biomonitoring) were explored. The results obtained for the alternative environmental and biological matrices could distinguish the different groups of workers. For instance, in E-Waste survey higher levels of metals were obtained in the hair samples from battery worker (Cd: 0.10 – 3.10 µg/g; Cr: 2.85 - 141 µg/g; Pb: 0.69 – 751 µg/g) vs controls (Cd: 0.10 – 0.12 µg/g; Cr: 3.33 - 21.6 µg/g; Pb: 0.38 – 4.79 µg/g). Hair levels were further correlated with the settled dust metals levels. Moreover, positive correlation between FSD levels and urinary metabolite concentration was found for all phthalates, with the strongest correlation for DEHP (RSperman 0.689, p0.05). In addition, a strong and positive correlation was observed between FSD and SWB results for PBDE and PCB supporting the use of these two types of hygiene sampling approaches for reliable external exposure assessment and characterization. Overall, alternative matrices are giving access to an extended window of exposure reflecting longer periods of exposure, which are not captured by classical matrices. Presented on behalf of the HBM4EU occupational study project team.