Environmental Health Risk Assessment of Toluene Exposure

Toluene is one of the aromatic hydrocarbon compounds used as a solvent. Exposure toluene can pose health risks for workers. Environmental health risk assessment was conducted to determine the effect of toluene exposure. This research was conducted on 40 workers from 3 footwear industries in West Java, Indonesia, in 2017. The mean concentration of toluene in the workplace air is 5.6 mg/m3. Anthropometric data showed 55 kilograms as the weighted average of footwear's workers. Activity pattern includes an average of 8 hours a day as time exposure, 312 days a year as a frequency of exposure, and 11 years as working time in the footwear industry. The risk quotient for the population is still below the reference dose of IRIS. Suggestion for the safe concentration limit of toluene during 8 hours exposure is 16.6 mg/m3. Workers should use personal protective equipment such as masks accompanied by toluene absorbers to avoid the risk of exposure.