Temporal changes in the variability of respirable mineral dust exposure concentrations

In the last decade a lot of evidence with regard to temporal trends in exposure concentrations in predominantly Western industrial countries has become available. In a recent literature review (Creely et al. 2007) overall percentage of yearly declines up to 32% were presented. To what extent these temporal declines also affect the variability in exposure concentrations is unknown. The main reason is lack of longitudinal data including repeated measurements that would allow evaluating trends in personal and temporal components of exposure variability. The recently elaborated exposure database from the Industrial Minerals Association Dust Monitoring Programme provided an opportunity to study these trends for exposure to respirable mineral dust. This database currently contains more than 11,000 measurements from more than 20 companies and 80 sites throughout Europe. About one-third of the measurement data comprised repeated measurements within a specific site-job-survey combination. Linear mixed models were used to estimate variance components. Variance components were consequently plotted against year of measurements. For 377 groups of workers (with number of workers>2, total number of observations >5 and repeats >1.25) the fold range of the total variability ( _tR_.95) appeared to go down significantly with 3% per campaign (half year): from 34 in summer 2002 to 20 in winter 2005/2006. When the variability was teased apart the fold range for the temporal variability ( _wwR_.95) appeared to decrease significantly as well with 3% per campaign (half year): from 17 in summer 2002 to 10 in winter 2005/2006. The between-worker variability did not show a temporal trend and stayed constant with on average a fold-range (_bwR_.95) of approximately 4. Downward temporal trends in exposure level of respirable (crystalline silica) dust seem to coincide with downward trends in the size of temporal variability. Fold-ranges of average exposure of individual workers within a job at a particular site appear to be stationary. Implications are that attenuation of exposure-response associations in epidemiogical studies will decline and that fewer measurements will have to be collected to arrive at accurate estimates of long-term exposure to respirable mineral dust in this industry.