Air Quality Monitoring and Health Surveillance of Photocopier Service Personnel in Xerographic Units

Abstract

Service personnel in xerographic industry are routinely exposed to toner and their newlineemissions from xerographic machines in a manner comparable to operators. However, the milieu newlineof pollutants to which these personnel are exposed is varied due to the differences in the newlinephotocopier machines, associated factors andindoor environments. Therefore, evaluating the risks newlineof exposure among service personnel is imperative. Chronic exposure to air pollutants has been newlinedocumented to affect both the respiratory and cardiovascular systems. Till date no attempt has newlinebeen made to evaluate the effects of photocopier exposure among the service personnel. It is this newlinelacuna that necessitates the health surveillance program among them which are the most suitable newlinebiomarkers to assess to assess the health effects caused by the complex pollutants released from newlinephotocopiers. The findings revealed that chronic exposure to xerographic toners and their newlineemissions might cause restrictive lung disease, high oxidative stress, inflammation and endothelial newlinedysfunction among photocopier service personnel. High exposure to fine and coarse particulate newlinematter emissions in the form of toner particles with release of different hazardous organic newlinecompounds emissions that include various volatile organic hydrocarbon compounds (aliphatic, newlinearomatic, heterocyclic and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons compounds) and photocopier newlineemissions leads to cardio pulmonary disease among the service personnel. Invasive biomarker newlineClara Cell Protein (CC16) was found to be the best indicator of lung function. ICAM-1 was found newlineto be the best cardiovascular marker among the photocopier service personnel. Increased newlineinflammatory endothelial marker Inter Cellular Adhesion Molecule (ICAM-1) and nonspecific newlineinflammatory marker levels Interleukins 6 and 8 and CRP indicates associated co-morbidity of newlinecardio problems coupled with lung dysfunction. An increased level of % DNA content in tail newlineindicates the genotoxic effect of photocopier exposure.The non-invasive urinary putative newlinebiomarker