Occupational exposure to glass wool fibers: An update

Abstract

In the decade since the last published comprehensive report of occupational exposures in the glass wool insulation industry, many process and regulatory changes have occurred in the glass wool manufacturing sector. This paper assesses whether any significant changes in worker exposures to glass wool fibers have resulted from these process and regulatory changes. The analysis compares worker exposures to glass wool overall and across different product and job categories in the manufacturing sector prior to and after 2007, the data cutoff period for the last comprehensive update of occupational exposures in this industry. The exposure data were downloaded from the North American Insulation Manufacturers Association’s synthetic vitreous fiber (SVF) exposure database, which has been continually updated with all new available SVF exposure data for the past two decades. This analysis finds no major changes in worker exposures in the glass wool manufacturing industry over the past decade, with exposures remaining well below the 1 f/cc voluntary permissible exposure limit.

Keywords:

• Exposure database
• fiber glass
• glass wool
• insulation
• occupational exposure
• synthetic vitreous fibers

Conflict of interest

This article is funded by the North American Insulation Manufacturers Association (“NAIMA”). NAIMA is the trade association representing the manufacturers of fiber glass and mineral wool insulation products throughout North America. All authors of this article are (1) employed by NAIMA; (2) are employed by NAIMA as consultants; or (3) are employed by companies who are members of NAIMA. Therefore, there is a potential conflict of interest inherent in the very relationship with NAIMA. To address this potential conflict of interest the collection, consolidation, analysis, and publication of these exposure data are governed by a strictly observed quality assurance and quality control protocol that masks the origin and identity of the sources providing the data. The QA/QC protocols are supervised and enforced by representatives from Arizona State University.