Níveis de exposição de bombeiros portugueses a hidrocarbonetos aromáticos policíclicos em ambiente de quartel

• Autor(a) principal: Soares, Ana Carolina Almeida
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.22/19223
• topic: Polycyclic aromatic compounds; Firefighters; Occupational exposure; Personal air monitoring; Hidrocarbonetos aromáticos policíclicos; Bombeiros; Exposição ocupacional; Monitorização de ar pessoal

Firefighting activity is among the most dangerous occupations, being classified as a possible carcinogen to humans by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), organic pollutants classified as priority pollutants by the Environmental Protection Agency of the United States of America (US EPA), are among the most characterised compounds in the occupational exposure of firefighters. However, the existing information is still very limited, particularly in a fire station environment. This main objective of this study was to characterize the occupational exposure of firefighters to 18 PAHs through personal air monitoring during the regular work shift. Firefighters from three fire corporations from the Bragança district (Bragança, Macedo de Cavaleiros and Torre de Moncorvo) were invited to collect a fraction of particulate matter, PM2.5 - particles with diameter ≤ 2.5 µm, for further analysis regarding its composition in PAHs. The concentrations of total PAHs (ΣPAHs) ranged from 2.23 ng/m3 (Macedo de Cavaleiros) to 486.25 ng/m3 (Torre de Moncorvo). The compounds with 2 and 3 aromatic rings were the predominant ones in the samples collected in the Bragança (82.7%) and Macedo de Cavaleiros (79.3%) corporations while the PAHs with 5 and 6 rings predominated in the PM2.5 samples collected in the Torre de Moncorvo fire station (55.3%). The risk assessment performed with the determined PAHs concentrations revealed a higher prevalence of possible/probable carcinogenic compounds in the breathing air of firefighters from Torre de Moncorvo corporation (72% versus 14% in Bragança and Macedo de Cavaleiros). Among the compounds under study, the prevalence of dibenzo(a,h)anthracene in samples of personal air collected in Torre de Moncorvo (median 62.67 ng/m3 ; range 0.72-195.06 ng/m3 ) and Bragança (0.95 ng/m3 ; range 0.91-12.69 ng/m3 ) should be highlighted. In fact, from those fire stations presented a higher lifetime risk of developing cancer during their life (3.55×10-7 and 6.05×10-9 , respectively for Torre de Moncorvo and Bragança). However, the values determined are clearly below the guideline recommended by the US EPA (10-6 ). Thus, it can be concluded that exposure to PAHs (through PM2.5 inhalation) represents no risk in the characterized fire stations is safe for these operational forces.