HBM4EU occupational biomonitoring study on
e-waste

HBM4EU (Human Biomonitoring for Europe, www.hbm4eu.eu/about-hbm4eu) is a
European Joint Programme, which aims to harmonise and use human biomonitoring
to understand human exposure to chemicals in the environment, via their
occupation or use of consumer products and the related health risks, in order
to improve chemical risk management. The programme is funded by the European
Commission and national governments and includes experts from 28 countries and
European Union agencies and will run from 2017 to 2021.

HBM4EU includes both the use of biomonitoring in the characterisation of the
exposure and risks to the general population and to workers. Occupational
exposure to specific chemicals may in many instances be several times higher
than the exposure of the general populations. Human biomonitoring provides
important information on the combined exposure via all routes of exposure; via
inhalation, oral, dermal and via hand-to-mouth contact. It usually complements
environmental measurements and can inform us on the effectivity of preventive
and protective measures (including personal protective equipment).

E-waste is defined (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2016) as: *various forms of
electric and electronic equipment that have ceased to be of value to their
users or no longer satisfy their original purpose [*] including both *white
goods* such as refrigerators, washing machines, and microwaves and *brown
goods* such as televisions, radios, computers, and cell phones.* A
classification of e-waste items is provided in a report endorsed by ESCAP,
ESCWA, ITU, OECD, UNCTAD, UNECA, EUROSTAT, UNEP/SBC and UNU, referring to two
existing EU waste classification systems (Baldé et al., 2015). In the FP7
project CWIT (2012) it was estimated that only 35% (3.3 million tonnes of 9.5
million tonnes) of used (but still functioning) e-waste was processed within
the EU. Annually approximately 400,000 tonnes of discarded electronics left the
EU as part of *undocumented mixed exports*. When taking into account the EU new
circular economy policy (EEA, 2019) and the need to enhance the recycling of
e-waste, the waste management/recycling sector is expected to grow. This
e-waste stream is complex because it contains many composite materials such as
circuit boards, cathode ray tubes, flat screen monitors, batteries, connectors
and transformers, plastic casings and cables. The e-waste stream contains a
broad range of hazardous ingredients, including toxic metals, polybrominated
diphenyl ether (BPDE) and organophosphate ester (OPE) flame retardants,
phthalates, polychlorobiphenyls (PCBs), hexabromocyclododecanes (HBCDs),
polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDD), polybrominated dibenzo-p-dioxins
(PBDD) and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDF). Plastic materials may contain
chemicals that were legal at the time they were manufactured but are now either
restricted or banned, such as lead, PCBs, some phthalates and flame retardants
(Grant et al., 2013). The recycling of these materials can result in exposure
of workers involved in different steps in the chain of waste processing such as
collection, sorting, dismantling, shredding and further pre-processing and
purification of waste components for the market of recycled polymer plastics
and metals.

HBM4EU could support the development of sustainable practices in e-waste
management by providing suitable methods for exposure assessment to support the
development of sound practices in professional processing of e-waste. This
would prevent e-waste from being dumped in, and also outside European countries
and would support a development towards more sustainable processing of this
waste stream in line with the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary
Movement of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal (Basel Convention, 1989). A
recent literature review by Arain and Neitzel (2019) shows that so far
occupational exposures were only studied in few European countries and only one
study used biomonitoring to assess the level of exposure (Julander et al.,
2014). A HBM4EU study could focus on a range of substances on the first and
second list of priority substances (EEA, 2018) for which biomonitoring methods
have been developed and tested in multiple laboratories as part of HBM4EU and
may also include substances for which this process is still ongoing.

1.1 Biomonitoring of exposure
No human biomonitoring guidance has been adopted under Carcinogens and Mutagens
Directive (CMD), although biomonitoring can support the exposure assessment
under both REACH and CMD since it provides a good estimate of the internal dose
and e.g. on the effectiveness of the respiratory protection to reduce exposure.

1.2 Effect biomarkers
The characterisation of effect biomarkers is of utmost importance to establish
a relationship between the exposure to e-waste components and its human health
impact, given that they comprise sensitive endpoints that reflect early
biochemical/subclinical changes before the onset of disease.

Primary Objective:
The general objective of the study is to increase the share of processing
e-waste that EU member states are producing, using EU*s own processing
capability, instead of exporting e-waste. In a partnership with the recycling
sector in Europe (EEA, 2019), HBM4EU can help to ensure the sustainable
processing of e-waste. For this study our focus will be on the occupational
health and safety aspects. By conducting a HBM study we hope to contribute to
awareness of potential hazards and stimulate good work practices that will lead
to further improved protection of the worker*s health from the risk of exposure
to toxic components, including that of combined exposures.


Secondary Objective(s):
1. Identify the most relevant compounds in the e-waste processing and use of
available knowledge developed and available in HBM4EU to support an exposure
study.
2. Collaborate with employers and employees of parties in the public and
private sectors to collect the biological specimen for HBM.
3. Develop a study protocol, information materials and informed consent forms
and documentation for ethics approval in each of the collaborating member
states.
4. Re-use and revise existing standard operating procedures (SOPs), already
available from the chromium study and develop new SOPs if needed.
5. Set up a collaboration with those labs that could support the analysis of
the most relevant biomarkers in matrices that can be obtained.
6. Implement the HBM study with sufficient supportive measurements and
contextual data to be able to identify opportunities for further improvements
of occupational hygiene practice and herewith address questions and concerns
that employers and employees might have.

The study design is a cross sectional study design, including 10 European
countries and in each country 2-4 companies with activities related to e-waste
processing.

For the aim of the study it is important that a wide range of industrial
recycling activities are covered and that the study population represents a
wide range of work practices. The results will then reflect real life exposures
in the participating European countries. E-waste processing is often described
in a step-wise process where different parties work together in a chain:
general waste is collected and treated in a chain of service providers who are
offering services to the market of general (household) waste. Other parties may
also buy/accept/treat specific (industrial) waste streams for processing. They
provide services for collection, transport, sorting and processing. E-waste is
a part of this waste stream for which additional/specialized services have been
developed for more-or-less specialised treatment by companies who focus on
specific components as recycling products, e.g. polymers or metals in different
industrial sectors.

The burden for the participants consists of:
* the effort of collection of urine samples (two times);
* undergoing blood collection by vena puncture (one time);
* participating in taking of hand wipes (five times);
* carrying air sampling equipment during work hours (five times);
* participating in an interview related to collect contextual information such
as information on lifestyle and work-related determinants of exposure to
relevant e-waste components (one time);
* participating in a short daily interview regarding the tasks performed during
the shift (five times).