Applying of Technique for Assessing Occupational Cancerogenic Risks for Workers Used in Metallurgical Shops With Different Methods of Blister Copper Production

Background: Exposure to carcinogens at workers used in the enterprises of copper metallurgy making urgent the task of assessing carcinogenic risks in the nonferrous metallurgy. In particular, melting and conversion of copper are characterized by the exposure of arsenic, cadmium, lead, nickel, benz(a)pyrene. Aim: Assessment of professional carcinogenic risks for workers used in shops with a shaft and reflective copper smelting ore, compared with one of the modern methods of producing blister copper. Carcinogenic risk was estimated from each of the substances and in total from their combination for 25 years of work experience. When inappropriate carcinogen risk calculated duration time of operation, at which the allowable upper limit of occupational risk. Methods: A hygienic assessment of the contribution of the working environment to the formation of a carcinogenic risk for workers engaged in reverberatory and blast smelting of copper-bearing ores in comparison with autogenous processes was carried out. To calculate the carcinogenic risks, we used 8 hours concentration in the working air as well as slope factors for inhalation exposure (SFi) of arsenic, cadmium, lead, nickel, and benz(a)pyrene. Results: It is shown that when copper is smelted, inorganic arsenic compounds are the main factor that forms a carcinogenic risk: reverberatory smelting - 67.8%; shaft smelting - 88.9%; melting furnaces in “molten bath” - 96.2%. The highest predicted values of carcinogenic risk for similar occupations of metallurgical shops are observed with reverberatory (2.9 × 10 −2 ) and blast smelting (1.8 × 10 −2 ), rather than with bath smelting (5.2 × 10 −3 ). It is due to the difference in the used equipment. The highest values of carcinogenic risks identified in the batch loader, working conditions which are characterized by exposure to high concentrations of dust in the workplace area, and the least - for the metal spiller. Among the professions of the copper smelting shop, in which reflective smelting is used, the values of the length of service in contact with carcinogenic substances were in the range from 6.5 to 1.1 years. A little more was the duration of the maximum work experience in mine melting - from 1.38 to 1.56 years. In the smelting shop with smelting furnaces in a “liquid bath” the amount of acceptable work experience varied from 3.13 to 6.41 years. Conclusion: When all the existing methods for producing blister copper carcinogenic risk due to exposure to arsenic, cadmium, lead, chromium (VI), and benzo(a)pyrene is in an unacceptable range (>1.0 × 10 −3 ). The main measure to reduce the carcinogenic risk of blister copper production should be the technical re-equipment of smelter shops with the introduction of autogenous processes (melting furnaces in “molten bath”).