EXPROPNANO: Assessment of occupational exposure to nanometric particles (measurement strategy coupled with analysis of the activity)

The project focuses on the issues of preventing occupational risks related to nanoscale particles, be they of unintentional or of manufactured origin. On the basis of the various recommendations established in France and internationally, the idea is to develop and to validate an operational method of assessing occupational exposure by associating characterisation of the aerosols with a first level of activity analysis.
The innovative nature is based on this association and on stabilising a method that should be operational for a large number of different scenarios, while also bringing new and relevant items in terms of the prevention approach. The operational method of assessing occupational exposure is intended for field risk preventers (Prevention Departments of the CARSATs (Occupational Health and Pension Insurance Funds), approved laboratories, and hygienists in the occupational health services). This project is being implemented by various stakeholders: University of Bordeaux (Laboratoire Santé Travail Environnement, LSTE, the Health, Work, and Environment Laboratory), INERIS (French National Institute for the Industrial Environment and Risks), InVS (French Institute for Public Health Surveillance), University of Montreal, CARSAT Aquitaine, Laboratoire d'étude des particules inhalées de la ville de Paris (Laboratory for Studying Inhaled Particles of the City of Paris). A thesis co-directed by the LSTE and INRS is an essential part of the project.
The results expected from this project will contribute to building the job-exposure matrix of the LSTE’s MatPUF programme, that matrix showing jobs in relation to exposures to nanomaterials, and will also contribute to the French system of monitoring workers exposed to nanomaterials that has been put in place by InVS. This project also aims to produce new knowledge on occupational exposure in order to feed data into the various databases. In practical terms, implementation of the developed method should make it possible to feed the European Nano-Exposure and Contextual Information Database (NECID) developed by the European Partnership PEROSH, of which INRS is the French partner.