TITLE:
Occupational Health Surveillance: Pulmonary Function Test in Proppant Exposures
AUTHORS:
Humairat H. Rahman, Giffe T. Johnson, Raymond D. Harbison
KEYWORDS:
Proppant, Hydraulic Fracking, Pulmonary Function Test, Proppant Workers
JOURNAL NAME:
Occupational Diseases and Environmental Medicine,
Vol.4 No.2,
May
12,
2016
ABSTRACT: Workers involved in hydraulic fracking processes are exposed to various types of chemicals and
dusts in their workplaces, such as proppants, which hold open the fissures created in the fracking
process. Recently, ceramic proppants have been developed that may be less hazardous to workers
than traditional proppants. Pulmonary function testing of workers producing ceramic proppant
was used to assess the potential inhalation hazards of ceramic proppant. 100 male workers from a
producer of ceramic proppant were evaluated with pulmonary function test data collected and
evaluated using The American Thoracic Society (ATS) acceptability criteria. A comparison group
was selected from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III) spirometry
laboratory subset. No pulmonary function deficits were found in the worker group in
comparison to the NHANES III population. Mean FEV1 and FVC values in workers were 3.8 and 4.8
liters respectively, and were greater as compared to the NHANES III population of similar demographics.
An FEV1/FVC ratio of less than 0.8, when compared to the NHANES III group, produced
an odds ratio of 0.44 in worker group, indicating less risk of preclinical pulmonary dysfunction.
Overall, exposure to ceramic proppant was not found to produce an adverse impact on pulmonary
function in workers engaged in the manufacture of ceramic proppant.