Genes and the brave new world of workplace safety

The ‘brave new world’ of occupational health and safety is already here, according to one of Australia’s most prominent occupational and environmental medicine specialists, Dr Ian Gardner, who spoke at the recent Safety Conference in Sydney.

“Genetic screening is likely to become a routine part of workplace safety,” says Dr Gardner. “In the old days, a single level of exposure was declared safe for everyone. Now we know that it is affected by your age, race, gender, pre-existing health conditions and lifestyle factors, pregnancy status and your genes.

“For example, we know that some people are hypersensitive to the organophosphates in some pesticides. Some pest controllers find they get sick within a few months and leave the industry. Others get splashed regularly and keep on working in pest control for years with no apparent ill effects on their health. Genetic screening can already identify who will get sick before coming into contact with these chemicals.

“In fact, if I was managing director of a pest control firm right now, I'd be considering sending employees off for genetic screening to determine their sensitivity to organophosphate pesticides. This would enable extra precautions to be taken to safeguard the wellbeing of those persons.”

In his presentation, Dr Gardner commented that genetic factors also play a role in who will fall ill following asbestos exposure and draws parallels with engineered carbon nanotubes that are increasingly being used in everything from tennis racquets to personal body armour.

“Nanotubes and asbestos fibres have a similar size and shape and neither can be easily broken down by the body. Like asbestos fibres, inhaled nanotubes cause chronic inflammation in animals that can trigger cancers. However, at this stage, there is no human exposure data.”

Although people currently working with engineered nanomaterials in laboratories and high-tech manufacturing facilities are ‘properly protected’, Dr Gardner argued that we don't know what will happen when engineered nanoparticulates get out into the environment and are burned, cut with angle grinders or get into the food, water and sewerage systems.

“We’re also still learning about how nanoparticulates might enter the body,” he added. “There’s evidence they only penetrate the first 2 mm of adult skin, but babies have quite different skin and we just don’t know how they might be affected.

“Research has also uncovered a potential new occupational exposure route through the nose, up the olfactory nerve and straight into the brain, bypassing the blood-brain barrier that protects us against so many chemicals.

“Occupational health and safety professionals need to begin debating the right balance between the potential benefits of genetic screening and the many concerns that surround it.”