ResH&S 2012 FINAL

THE FLAVOR AND EXTRACT MANUFACTURERS ASSOCIATIONtraining sessions assure that employees have theappropriate awareness of respiratory safety issues.Personnel in task areas that merit focusinclude:■■ Personnel who blend and mix flavorsin bulk quantities, especially those exposed toheated flavors, and the powder flavor and spraydrymanufacturing processes.■■ Personnel who pack flavors (liquid ordry).■■ Quality assurance personnel and flavoristswho may have repeated exposure to flavors, eventhough exposure may be in smaller amounts.Hazard identificationOver 2,700 chemically-defined flavoringsubstances and natural flavoring complexes arecommonly used to formulate flavors. The U.S.Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is primarilyresponsible for the regulation of the additionof flavoring substances to food through severalregulatory pathways (Hallagan and Hall, 2009).The vast majority of these materials have chemicaland physical characteristics that would makeit highly unlikely that they would pose a risk ofrespiratory injury in the workplace. Most of thematerials are not very volatile and do not have asignificant degree of reactivity. However, somelow molecular weight chemically-defined flavoringsubstances may have sufficient volatility,and possibly reactivity, to pose a risk of respiratoryinjury when improperly handled. Table 1contains a list of chemically-defined flavoringsubstances that may pose potential respiratoryhazards when improperly handled.The priority levels in Table 1 were assignedbased on available inhalation exposuredata in animals and humans, chemical structure,volatility, and volume of use. In many instances,data on one flavoring substance was used toevaluate the priority level for other structurallyrelatedsubstances. In many cases, relevant inhalationexposure information is limited and, onoccasion, is available for flavoring substancesthat have other, larger-scale industrial uses. Theassignment of priority levels required the applicationof significant judgment and also tookinto account anecdotal information provided byworkers in the flavor industry who shared theirvaluable experience related to the handling offlavoring substances.Since the original edition of this reportwas published in 2004, new information hasbecome available on substances structurallyrelatedto diacetyl resulting in their addition tothe table as high priority substances. These substancesinclude 2,3-pentanedione, 2,3-hexandione,3,4-hexanedione, 2,3-heptandione, and diacetyltrimer. A few substances were reassignedfrom high priority to low priority based on newinformation. No substances were removed fromTable 1.Table 1 contains updated information oneach flavoring substance from the FEMA PoundageSurvey. Data from the 1995, 2005, and 2010surveys are included and represent the amountof each flavoring substance estimated to “disappear”into the U.S. food supply in a given year.This information allows a rough estimate on thetrends of use for the listed substances.Hazard communication - MSDSsClear communication of potential hazardsis of critical importance. The OSHA HazardCommunications Standard establishes aminimum for hazard communication through itsmaterial safety data sheet (MSDS) requirements.5