Assessing cleaners' exposure to biological and chemical hazards and developing procedures for estimating occupational risk related to the presence of those factors in individual workstations

Project manager: Małgorzata Gołofit-Szymczak Ph.D.

Project summary:

The task consisted in administering questionnaires and establishing on their basis that workers did not know much about biological and chemical hazards. Harmful biological factors and chemical substances were measured at workstations of 7 cleaning companies in 5 groups of establishments (office buildings, schools, health care institutions, a furniture shop and the machine industry). Mean values of bioaerosol concentrations at the workstations were lower than the recommended reference values for concentrations of bacteria and fungi in residential and public areas, which had been developed by the Expert Group for Biological Agents of the Interdepartmental Commission for Maximum Admissible Concentrations and Intensities for Agents Harmful to Health in the Working Environment. The results of measuring chemical factors showed that the process of cleaning could be a source of trace quantities of organic compounds, including toxic carbonyl compounds. Exposure to chemical factors at the workplace of cleaning personnel was assessed on the basis of the obtained measurement results. The combined exposure indexes in most cases did not exceed 0.1 of the admissible values. However, because Maximal Admissible Concentrations have not been established for other chemical factors present in the air that was tested, the assessment is incomplete. Checklists for both groups of harmful factors were developed on the basis of the obtained results. Procedures for assessing and limiting occupational risk have also been developed.

Unit: Department of Chemical and Aerosol Hazards

Duration: 01.01.2008 – 30.12.2010