Risk Communication Strategies for the Recycling Industry

For the estimated 1.1 million employees that work in the various aspects of collection, sorting, handling, and processing of recycled materials, the risks incurred in the recycling industry on the job are diverse and difficult to quantify. For industrial hygienists, the challenge of quantifying chemical exposure risks in a meaningful way is particularly difficult due to the unpredictable chemical composition of the source materials. As an example, employees performing torch cutting in the metals recycling industry are known to be exposed to various toxic metals; however these exposures are difficult to quantify when the metals being processed change on a day to day basis. In addition, in the limited instances where industrial hygiene quantification can be done, the subsequent decisions regarding risk must often be made based on a very small data set. This presentation will review how Bayesian Decision Analysis can be used to improve risk communication by estimating the probability that an employee's true exposure falls within a particular exposure category. With more accurate probability estimates, employers can make better decisions about allocating engineering resources and about enrolling employees in medical surveillance programs. This is a particular advantage when air monitoring data is highly variable, and when much of the data falls below the OSHA Permissible Exposure Limits.