Occupational and consumer risk estimates for nanoparticles emitted by laser printers

Otto Hänninen, Irene Brüske-Hohlfeld, Miranda Loh, Tobias Stoeger, Wolfgang Kreyling, Otmar Schmid, Annette Peters

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

29 Scopus citations

Abstract

Several studies have reported laser printers as significant sources of nanosized particles (<0.1 μm). Laser printers are used occupationally in office environments and by consumers in their homes. The current work combines existing epidemiological and toxicological evidence on particle-related health effects, measuring doses as mass, particle number and surface area, to estimate and compare the potential risks in occupational and consumer exposure scenarios related to the use of laser printers. The daily uptake of laser printer particles was estimated based on measured particle size distributions and lung deposition modelling. The obtained daily uptakes (particle mass 0.15-0.44 μg d-1; particle number 1.1-3.1 × 109 d-1) were estimated to correspond to 4-13 (mass) or 12-34 (number) deaths per million persons exposed on the basis of epidemiological risk estimates for ambient particles. These risks are higher than the generally used definition of acceptable risk of 1 × 10-6, but substantially lower than the estimated risks due to ambient particles. Toxicological studies on ambient particles revealed consistent values for lowest observed effect levels (LOELs) which were converted into equivalent daily uptakes using allometric scaling. These LOEL uptakes were by a factor of about 330-1,000 (mass) and 1,000-2,500 (particle surface area) higher than estimated uptakes from printers. This toxicological assessment would indicate no significant health risks due to printer particles. Finally, our study suggests that particle number (not mass) and mass (not surface area) are the most conservative risk metrics for the epidemiological and toxicological risks presented here, respectively.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)91-99
Number of pages9
JournalJournal of Nanoparticle Research
Volume12
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 2010

Keywords

  • Baseline toxicity
  • Epidemiology
  • Health effects
  • High toxicity
  • Occupational safety
  • Risk assessment
  • Toxicology

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Bioengineering
  • General Chemistry
  • Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
  • Modeling and Simulation
  • General Materials Science
  • Condensed Matter Physics

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