There are three primary routes by which occupational exposure to hazardous substances occurs: inhalation, dermal absorption, and ingestion. Of these, ingestion has been the least studied. Ingestion exposure is typically controlled in workplaces by the provision of clean eating areas that are separated from the work areas, and by encouraging hand-washing prior to eating. However, this control strategy does not affect ingestion exposure that can occur when contaminated hands or objects contact the mouth; these sorts of exposures can occur during work tasks in the general work area. For example, these sorts of contacts can occur when workers wipe their mouths or noses, chew pens or glasses, or bite their nails. Exposure by this pathway is called inadvertent ingestion exposure. In addition to the insertion of contaminated hands and objects directly into the oral cavity, contact can occur with the perioral area (the area surrounding the mouth) and transferred substances can subsequently transfer to the mouth. The aim of this thesis was to study inadvertent ingestion exposure in order to develop a generic predictive screening model to allow occupational hygienists and risk assessors to estimate exposure by inadvertent ingestion for a range of exposure scenarios. The thesis project was carried out in a series of steps, all of which are described below. The steps were carried out in the order presented and the findings from the work on earlier steps influenced the work carried out in later steps.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:606444 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Gorman Ng, Melanie |
| Publisher | University of Aberdeen |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://digitool.abdn.ac.uk:80/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=211182 |
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