Occupational dermal exposure to heavy fuel oils

Heavy fuel oil (HFO) consists of a wide variety of blended hydrocarbon residues from refinery distillation and cracking processes. Dermal exposure to HFO may cause oil folliculitis and dermatitis and it is known to contain compounds that may cause skin cancer, including benzo(a)pyrene. There is no standard and validated method for determining dermal exposure to HFO and hence no exposure data are available. Concawe has funded this study to obtain exposure data in order to inform health risk assessment for HFO exposure.A validated method for the collection and analysis of dermal exposure to HFO was developed. Subsequently, quantitative data were collected from the relevant industries under production (oil refineries), distribution (fuel terminals) and use (fuel for power stations, heating, marine and feedstock) scenarios. Attempts were also made to validate and calibrate a semi-quantitative method for dermal exposure assessment (DREAM).We concluded that, for the scenarios investigated, dermal exposures were relatively low. There was no relationship between quantitative dermal exposure measurements and semi-quantitative estimates of dermal exposure, most likely due to the limited range in dermal exposure levels. We advise that exposure data should be collected using the validated method for dermal exposure measurements of HFO developed in this study. While we were able to capture exposure data for some of the main scenarios for which there is a potential for HFO exposure, there are other important exposure scenarios (e.g. engine-building) which were not included. The low frequency and levels of exposure obtained for the scenarios investigated in this study are not necessarily indicative of exposure levels for situations that have not been investigated here. “”