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. 2022 Mar 15;10(3):141.
doi: 10.3390/toxics10030141.

Quantitative Health Risk Assessment of the Chronic Inhalation of Chemical Compounds in Healthcare and Elderly Care Facilities

Anaïs Colas  1   2 , Alexandre Baudet  2   3   4 , Pierre Le Cann  5 , Olivier Blanchard  5 , Jean-Pierre Gangneux  5   6 , Estelle Baurès  5 , Arnaud Florentin  1   2   4
Affiliations

Quantitative Health Risk Assessment of the Chronic Inhalation of Chemical Compounds in Healthcare and Elderly Care Facilities

Anaïs Colas et al. Toxics. .

Abstract

Previous studies have described the chemical pollution in indoor air of healthcare and care facilities. From these studies, the main objective of this work was to conduct a quantitative health risk assessment of the chronic inhalation of chemical compounds by workers in healthcare and elderly care facilities (hospitals, dental and general practitioner offices, pharmacies and nursing homes). The molecules of interest were 36 volatile and 13 semi-volatile organic compounds. Several professional exposure scenarios were developed in these facilities. The likelihood and severity of side effects that could occur were assessed by calculating the hazard quotient for deterministic effects, and the excess lifetime cancer risk for stochastic effects. No hazard quotient was greater than 1. Three compounds had a hazard quotient above 0.1: 2-ethyl-1-hexanol in dental and general practitioner offices, ethylbenzene and acetone in dental offices. Only formaldehyde presented an excess lifetime cancer risk greater than 1 × 10-5 in dental and general practitioner offices (maximum value of 3.8 × 10-5 for general practitioners). The health risk for chronic inhalation of most compounds investigated did not appear to be of concern. Some values tend to approach the acceptability thresholds justifying a reflection on the implementation of corrective actions such as the installation of ventilation systems.

Keywords: chemical compounds; chronic inhalation; health risk assessment; healthcare facility; hospital; indoor air pollution; nursing home.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Hazard quotients of ethylbenzene (blue), 2-ethyl-1-hexanol (green) and acetone (purple).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Excess lifetime cancer risks of benzene (blue), formaldehyde (orange) and acetaldehyde (red) against the acceptability threshold (yellow).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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