Industry-wide review of potential worker exposure to 1,3-butadiene during chemical manufacturing and processing as a reactant

Among the first 20 high-priority chemical substances selected by USEPA to undergo risk evaluation as part of the Toxic Substances Control Act, as amended by the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act of 2016 is 1,3-butadiene (1,3-BD). Because much of the literature related to occupational exposure to 1,3-BD is associated with the use of the substance in synthetic rubber production and few data have been published for exposures to 1,3-BD manufacturing workers, existing industrial hygiene data collected at facilities where the substance is manufactured or processed as a reactant were compiled and analyzed. The dataset was comprised of personal air samples collected between 2010 and 2019 at facilities located throughout the United States and was compiled into a single database using a uniform data collection template. Data designated by the companies as full-shift were stratified by job group and one of three operational conditions of the workplace: routine, turnaround, and non-routine. Data designated by the companies as short-term and task-level were stratified by task description, sample duration, and operational condition. The final aggregated database contained a total of 5,676 full-shift personal samples. Mean concentrations of 1,3-BD for the job groups ranged from 0.012 ppm to 0.16 ppm. High-end estimates of 1,3-BD air concentrations for the job groups under routine operations ranged from 0.014 ppm to 0.23 ppm. The aggregated database also included 1,063 short-term and task-level personal samples. For short-term samples (