Chemicals

Exposure Limit Recommended for Flavorings

It’s official. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has officially made a recommendation to limit the exposure of workers to flavoring compounds. And don’t think it’s just for microwave popcorn plants! Today we will review the recommendations and who’s affected. Tomorrow we will see what the future holds for controlling worker exposure to these compounds at your facility.

NIOSH contends that workers at risk of developing obliterative bronchiolitis (OB) from exposure to diacetyl and 2,3-pentanedione. OB is an irreversible form of lung disease in which the smallest airways in the lung (the bronchioles) become scarred and constricted, blocking the movement of air. OB is most famously associated with microwave popcorn plants but, in fact, can be an issue in any flavoring manufacturing plant or industrial or commercial facility where workers are exposed to the flavorings.

Who’s Affected?

Like we said, exposure to these flavoring compounds is not limited to microwave popcorn and flavoring plants. According to NIOSH, other industries with potential exposure to butter flavoring chemicals include:

  • Snack foods (e.g., chips, pretzels),
  • Commercial and retail bakeries (e.g., cakes, cookies, bread),
  • Retail baking mix production,
  • Margarine and other vegetable oil-based cooking products,
  • Butter and other dairy products,
  • Cigarette and e-cigarette manufacturers,
  • Candy manufacturers, and
  • Coffee processing facilities

In addition, the use of butter-flavored cooking oil products to prepare meals in restaurants may also lead to worker exposures.

Let’s Get REL

On the basis of a quantitative risk assessment of data collected in a series of NIOSH health hazard investigations, NIOSH concluded that employee exposure to diacetyl is associated with a reduction in lung function.

NIOSH has established a recommended exposure limit (REL) of 5 parts per billion (ppb) for diacetyl and 9.3 ppb for 2,3-pentanedione (as a time-weighted average (TWA) for up to 8 hours/day during a 40-hour workweek). NIOSH also recommended 15-minute short-term exposure limits (STELs) at 25 ppb for diacetyl and 31 ppb for 2,3-pentanedione.

In addition, to ensure that employee exposures are routinely below the REL for diacetyl, NIOSH also recommends using an action level (AL) of 2.6 ppb with the exposure monitoring program to ensure that all control efforts (engineering controls, medical surveillance, and work practices) are in place and working properly.

What’s Next?

At this point, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) deals with diacetyl and other flavoring exposure under the General Duty Clause and directives. With the NIOSH REL now official, it may be that an OSHA permissible exposure limit (PEL) is in the future.

Most flavorings are complex mixtures of natural and manmade substances. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) evaluates flavoring ingredients to determine whether they are “generally recognized as safe” (GRAS) to be eaten. However, according to NIOSH, even if they are safe to eat, these ingredients might still be harmful to breathe in the forms and amounts to which food and chemical industry workers may be exposed.

Given the complexity of flavorings mixtures and the lack of health data for many of the component materials, identifying the relative contributions of individual substances to causing flavoring-induced lung disease is a difficult challenge. The RELS for diacetyl and 2,3-pentanedione may just be the beginning. NIOSH has noted that the flavorings industry has estimated that over 1,000 flavoring ingredients have the potential to be respiratory hazards because of possible volatility and irritant properties.

What to Do at Your Facility

There are engineering and work practices are available to control diacetyl and 2,3-pentanedione exposures below the recommended exposure limits. NIOSH recommends a hierarchy of controls, including elimination, substitution, engineering controls, administrative controls, and the use of personal protective equipment should be followed to control workplace exposures.

Tune into tomorrow’s Advisor for tips to protect workers from exposure to these potentially harmful flavoring compounds.

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