Skip to main content
. 2019 Feb 16;76(4):259–267. doi: 10.1136/oemed-2018-105182

Table 1.

Distributions of rubber dust, rubber fume and n-Nitrosamines measurements

Rubber dust (mg/m3) Rubber fumes (mg/m3) n-Nitrosamines sum score (μg/m3) NDMA* (μg/m3) NMor† (μg/m3)
N AM GM GSD N AM GM GSD N AM GM GSD N AM GM GSD N AM GM GSD
Number of measurements 4157 1.84 0.58 4.6 3803 0.57 0.26 3.51 2023 7.87 0.56 1.41 2023 0.32 0.16 2.81 2025 0.27 0.16 2.70
Below LOD‡ 11.3% 21.9% NA 88.7% 85.7%
Sector
 General rubber goods 1607 2.68 1.07 4.01 1987 0.76 0.39 3.29 787 14.82 1.06 1.73 795 0.29 0.16 2.72 793 0.29 0.16 2.82
 Tyres 2550 1.31 0.40 4.42 1816 0.35 0.17 3.23 1236 3.44 0.24 1.04 1228 0.33 0.16 2.87 1232 0.25 0.16 2.62
 P value 0.053 0.002 <0.001 0.012 0.128
Aggregated BRMA§ Departments
 Crude materials and mixing 2005 2.62 0.41 4.93 1107 0.49 0.23 3.76 85 1.13 −0.06 0.54 86 0.20 0.15 2.86 86 0.28 0.16 2.92
 Preprocessing and assembly 616 1.23 0.32 3.73 515 0.34 0.16 3.43 250 5.68 0.26 1.16 249 0.35 0.16 2.76 249 0.23 0.15 2.57
 Curing, Vulcanising 930 0.74 0.33 4.07 1716 0.67 0.34 3.38 1371 9.77 0.72 1.53 1373 0.31 0.16 3.19 1379 0.26 0.16 2.65
 Finishing, assembly and miscellaneous 606 1.56 0.41 4.17 465 0.6 0.26 3.28 317 3.18 0.23 0.97 315 0.33 0.16 2.35 311 0.32 0.17 2.98
 P value <0.001 0.006 0.392 0.074 0.057
Sample type
 Personal 2416 2.53 1.00 3.95 2492 0.69 0.35 3.28 1099 10.43 0.57 1.57 1119 0.22 0.14 2.47 1114 0.21 0.14 2.43
 Stationary 1741 0.87 0.28 4.09 1311 0.33 0.15 3.29 924 4.82 0.54 1.18 904 0.43 0.18 3.17 911 0.34 0.18 2.99
 P value <0.001 <0.001 0.388 <0.001 <0.001
Dataset
 BRMA§ 3799 1.76 0.55 4.61 2494 0.32 0.17 3.08
 HSE-NEDB¶ 358 2.71 1.15 3.84 3803 1.02 0.59 2.97
 P value 0.434 0.008
Country
 UK** 4157 1.84 0.58 4.6 3803 0.57 0.26 3.51 84 3.67 0.34 1.01 81 0.88 0.35 3.89 83 0.35 0.17 3.01
 Germany 0 0 1939 8.05 0.57 1.42 1942 0.29 0.15 2.73 1942 0.26 0.16 2.69
 P value N/A N/A 0.590 0.010 0.628

* N-nitrosodimethylamine.

N-nitrosomorpholine.

‡Limit of detection.

§ British Rubber Manufacturing Association.

¶British Health and Safety Executive National Exposure Database.

**Only UK data were used for rubber fumes and rubber dust analyses.

AM, arithmetic mean; GM, geometric means; GSD, geometric standard deviation; LOD, limit of detection; NDMA, N-nitrosodimethylamine; NMor, N-nitrosomorpholine.