Health risk assessment of volatile organic compounds exposure among nail salon workers in Vietnam

Abstract

Purpose

The objective of this study is to assess the carcinogen and non-carcinogen risks due to exposure to volatile organic compounds including methyl methacrylate (MMA), benzene, toluene, and xylene among Vietnamese nail salon workers, using probabilistic health risk assessment.

Methods

This study applied the probabilistic health risk assessment framework to assess the health risk due to exposure to four types of volatile organic compounds among nail salon workers. Forty-two passive personal samples of full-shift female nail workers from 15 salons in Da Nang city were monitored and analyzed by GC-FID in the Thammasat laboratory. Exposure parameters were collected by interviewing nail salon workers. Monte Carlo simulation was used to characterize the risk and its uncertainty.

Results

The mean of concentrations of MMA, benzene, toluene, and xylene were 20.62, 0.21, 2.49, and 0.58 mg m⁻³, respectively. The 95th percentile hazard quotients calculated for MMA, benzene, toluene, and xylene were 33.14, 7.49, 0.54, and 2.07, respectively. The 95th percentile lifetime cancer risk for benzene was 198 times higher than the EPA recommendation for cancer risk (10⁻⁶).

Conclusions

Non-cancer risks from exposure to MMA, benzene, and xylene were many times higher than the acceptable limit, which indicated a possible risk of adverse health effects among nail salon workers. Nail salon workers may also be at risk of leukemia or cancer of the blood-forming organs because the cancer risk due to exposure to benzene is higher than the recommended level.

Keywords:

• Volatile organic compounds
• probabilistic health risk assessment
• Nail salon workers
• Vietnam

Author’s contributions

Huan Minh Tran: conceptualization, methodology, and writing—original draft. Hanh Thi My Bui: investigation and data curation. Somkiat Thoumsang: resources. Supat Wangwongwatana: formal analysis and supervision. Ha Phan Ai Nguyen: software. Dung Phung: writing—review and editing, and visualization.

Ethics approval

The study was approved by the Medical Ethics Committee Board of Da Nang University of Medical Technology and Pharmacy, Vietnam (No. 01/2019/DHKTYDĐN).

Consent to participate

All the NSWs and owners were supplied with the purpose of the study and signed a consent form before we conducted the study. Registry and the registration no. of the study: N/A.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest for this study.