Diesel Particulate Matter and Occupational Health (2017)

This 2018 paper was compiled to give guidance on the assessment, evaluation and control of occupational exposure to diesel particulate matter (DPM), with an emphasis on recommending a health-based guidance occupational exposure value. Elemental carbon (EC) is a surrogate for DPM, as it provides the best fingerprint of diesel particulate emissions, is relatively free of interferences and is chemically stable, unlike the adsorbed organic carbon fraction.

Notwithstanding the lack of a well-defined universal dose response relationship, experience has shown that when workplace exposures are controlled below 0.1 mg/m3 DPM (measured as submicron EC), irritant effect decreases markedly. In the absence of any more definitive data, the AIOH supports the maintenance of DPM levels (measured as submicron EC) as low as reasonably practicable (ALARP) below an 8-hour TWA guidance exposure value of 0.1 mg/m3, with the provision of applying a TWA value of 0.05 mg/m3 as an action level which triggers investigation of the sources of exposure and implementation of suitable control strategies.