Application of risk assessment approaches on pilot scale process lines using nanomaterials within the SANOWORK project

Nanomaterials are increasingly used in industrial products and cover a wide range of applications in cosmetics, functional materials, packaging and promising applications like the drug delivery which is still under investigation and development. The nanomaterials may exhibit interesting properties when compared to the same material in the micro scale. On the contrary their hazard potential may also be dramatically changed due to larger surface area and/or modified surface reactivity. Moreover, the nanomaterials due to their small size make the human beings more vulnerable to their exposure and can be transported deeper in the human body than microparticles. The production and handling of engineered nanomaterials in the work place may pose risks of exposure and hazards to workers. This may occur during the reception, storage, production and operations like cleaning of the work places and the equipment and also during the waste disposal. So, in an industrial context, particular attention has to be done on occupational safety issues related to nanomaterials. But, no consensual occupational exposure limits (OELs) are nowadays available for nanomaterials. In this context, a series of control banding approaches specific to nanomaterials were developed in the last decade to manage toxicological risks in workplaces involving nanomaterials. These CB methods for NMs focused on inhalation risks since it can considered to be most critical route of exposure than the ingestion and the dermal route. The present work concerns the project SANOWORK (7th European Framework Program, GA: 280716), whose main objective is to develop and implement design option based remediation strategies that will prevent workers exposure and/or potential hazards. The present contribution aims to present the work realized by INERIS to demonstrate the pertinence of qualitative and semi-quantitative approaches for the assessment of occupational risks. A series of pilot scale process lines were thus investigated by INERIS in the frame to evaluate the available tools in the assessment of occupational risks. The results showed that the application of existing CB tools to the SANOWORK process lines allowed to highlighting their capabilities and limitations for the design of safe industrial process lines involving nanomaterials