Dear Editor,

This informative article on the occupational wood dust exposure in Italy requests a monitoring method for received personal doses. Such a method exists exploiting samples obtained by nasal lavage (1). It is based on the the chemical analysis for wood polyphenols. Although they are species specific they are good quantitative indicators of hardwood dust particles coarse enough to be retained in the nasal passages.

The wood tannins can also be analysed in the suspended dust in the work room air. This provides the advantage that it gives an idea of current dusts and previous materials which may not have been properly cleaned away (2).

References

1 Mämmelä P, Tuomainen A, Vartiainen T, Lindroos L, Kangas J, Savolainen H. Biological monitoring of wood dust exposure in nasal lavage by high-performance liquid chromatography. J environ Monit, 2002; 4: 187- 189

2 Bianco M-A, Savolainen H. Woodworkers´ exposure to tannins. J appl Toxicol, 1994; 14: 293-295