Steel dust in the New York City subway system as a source of manganese, chromium, and iron exposures for transit workers.

The United States Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 reflected increasing concern about potential effects of low-level airborne metal exposure on a wide array of illnesses. Here we summarize results demonstrating that the New York City (NYC) subway system provides an important microenvironment for metal exposures for NYC commuters and subway workers and also describe an ongoing pilot study of NYC transit workers' exposure to steel dust. Results from the TEACH (Toxic Exposure Assessment, a Columbia and Harvard) study in 1999 of 41 high-school students strongly suggest that elevated levels of iron, manganese, and chromium in personal air samples were due to exposure to steel dust in the NYC subway. Airborne concentrations of these three metals associated with fine particulate matter were observed to be more than 100 times greater in the subway environment than in home indoor or outdoor settings in NYC. While there are currently no known health effects at the airborne levels observed in the subway system, the primary aim of the ongoing pilot study is to ascertain whether the levels of these metals in the subway air affect concentrations of these metals or related metabolites in the blood or urine of exposed transit workers, who due to their job activities could plausibly have appreciably higher exposures than typical commuters. The study design involves recruitment of 40 transit workers representing a large range in expected exposures to steel dust, the collection of personal air samples of fine particulate matter, and the collection of blood and urine samples from each monitored transit worker.

Elevated airborne exposures of teenagers to manganese, chromium, and iron from steel dust and New York City's subway system.

There is increasing interest in potential health effects of airborne exposures to hazardous air pollutants at relatively low levels. This study focuses on sources, levels, and exposure pathways of manganese, chromium, and iron among inner-city high school students in New York City (NYC) and the contribution of subways. Samples of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) were collected during winter and summer over 48 h periods in a variety of settings including inside homes, outdoors, and personal samples (i.e., sampling packs carried by subjects). PM2.5 samples were also collected in the NYC subway system. For NYC, personal samples had significantly higher concentrations of iron, manganese, and chromium than did home indoor and ambient samples. The ratios and strong correlations between pairs of elements suggested steel dust as the source of these metals for a large subset of the personal samples. Time-activity data suggested NYC subways as a likely source of these elevated personal metals. In duplicate PM2.5 samples that integrated 8 h of underground subway exposure, iron, manganese, and chromium levels (>2 orders of magnitude above ambient levels) and their ratios were consistent with the elevated personal exposures. Steel dust in the NYC subway system was the dominant source of airborne exposures to iron, manganese, and chromium for many young people enrolled in this study, with the same results expected for other NYC subway riders who do not have occupational exposures to these metals. However, there are currently no known health effects at the exposure levels observed in this study.