Composition of Fumes Evolving from Hot‐Melt Glues

products because they are solvent-free and environmentally friendly. They are mainly used in the paper, package, hygienic, printing and book-binding industries. In Finland the annual usage of hot-melt glues was about 4,000-5,000 tonnes in 1992. Complaints of respiratory irritation from exposure to fumes from hot-melt fumes are relatively common, even though very few cases of occupational disease (asthma) are related to such exposure. There are several types of hot-melt glues. A typical example would be a glue composed of: 1) a polymer, typically a copolymer such as ethene-vinyl acetate (EVA) or styreneisoprene-styrene (SIS), 2) a resin used as a tackifier (e.g. pine rosin ester or synthetic C5-alkyl polymer), 3) a wax (e.g. paraffin or microwax) and 4) an antioxidant (e.g. BHT [butylated hydroxytoluene] or an alkylphenol derivative). In addition, hot-melt glues may contain mineral oils and inorganic fillers. Colophony resin fume is a known respiratory sensitizer and the resin itself is also a skinsensitizer". Some resin hot-melt glues contain pine rosin and therefore the same compounds as found in studies', 3) dealing with colophony resin in solder flux would also be expected to evolve from these hot-melt glues, but hot melt glues contain rosin in a chemically modified form (resin acid ester), and they are used at temperatures lower than in soldering. A typical application temperature range is 150-210°C. This study was initiated due to an occupational asthma found in a book-binding company using hot-melt glues. We have found only a few reports on the health hazards or composition of the fumes from hot-melt glues"). The aim of this study was to further characterize their composition.