CONTROL BANDING
AND NANOTECHNOLOGY
Two industrial hygienists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
reveal the latest version of their control banding tool for nanomaterials.
BY DAVID M. ZALK AND SAMUEL Y. PAIK
Industrial hygienists love challenges. Here’s one with more than a few twists:
Let’s say you’re going through the basics of a risk assessment. You have some chemical
agents, a few workers, and the makings of your basic exposure characterization. However,
you have no occupational exposure limit (OEL), essentially no toxicological basis, and no
epidemiology. You cannot use sampling pumps, cassettes, tubes, or any of the media in
your toolbox, and the whole concept of mass-to-dose is out the window, even at high
exposure levels.
