Occupational exposures among personnel working near combined burn pit and incinerator operations at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan

Abstract

Occupational air samples were collected at Bagram Airfield Afghanistan for security forces (SF) stationed at the perimeter of the solid waste disposal facility that included a burn pit, air curtain destructors, and solid waste and medical waste incinerators. The objective of the investigation was to quantify inhalation exposures of workers near the disposal facility. Occupational air sample analytes included total particulates not otherwise specified (PNOS), respirable PNOS, acrolein and polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). Exposures were measured for four SF job specialties. Thirty 12-hour shifts were monitored from November 2011 to March 2012. The geometric means for respirable particulate matter and PAH for all job specialties were below the 12-hour adjusted American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists threshold limit value time weighted averages (TLV-TWA). The geometric mean of the respirable particulate matter 12-hour TWAs for the four job specialties ranged from 0.116 to 0.134 mg/m³. One measurement collected at the tower (3.1 mg/m³) position exceeded the TLV-TWA. Naphthalene and pyrene were the only PAHs detected in multiple samples of the 18 PAHs analyzed. The geometric mean concentration for naphthalene was 9.39E-4 mg/m³ and the maximum concentration was 0.0051 mg/m³. The geometric mean of acrolein for the four job specialties ranged from 0.021 to 0.047 mg/m³. There were four exceedances of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration 8-hour permissible exposure limit- time weighted average (PEL-TWA), respectively, ranging from 0.13 to 0.32 mg/m³.

• Burn pit
• incinerator
• inhalation exposure
• PAH
• particulate matter

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the SF personnel that volunteered during the sampling. The authors also appreciate the U.S. Air Force Bioenvironmental Technicians and U.S. Army Preventive Medicine personnel that assisted during the sampling.

Declaration of Interest

Funding for this investigation was provided by the U.S. Department of Defense.