A NIOSH Contractor, contacted 73 companies potentially using bisphenol A (BPA). Companies were identified from the 2011 EPA Toxic Release Inventory. Fifteen companies no longer reported using or producing BPA. NIOSH has recruited companies to participate in the study based on volume of use, industry type, number of workers in BPA-related operations, and manner of handling BPA. To date, site visits have been conducted at nine companies to assess manner and frequency of BPA use, jobs and tasks involving BPA, opportunities for exposure, and number of potentially BPA-exposed employees. Participant recruitment has been completed at six companies with consent rates of 67%, 75%, 11%, 73%, 52%, and 52%. The low recruitment rate at one company is due to less than optimal conditions for meeting with employees imposed by the company. NIOSH plans to recruit participants at a sixth company in late summer or fall of 2014. 60 workers across four companies have completed exposure sampling for an average of 15 workers per company, which was the target goal. This sampling represents 118 worker-days (2 workers were unable to complete both days of sampling). Industries participating in exposure sampling include BPA manufacturing, polycarbonate, phenolic resin, and investment wax production. NIOSH plans to complete exposure sampling at two additional companies in the fall of 2014, an epoxy resin/BPA manufacturer and an investment wax producer/foundry. 406 urine samples, 117 air samples, and 115 hand-wipe samples have been collected as part of the sampling efforts. We have also collected 65 surface wipe samples from the participating facilities. Sampling procedures have gone smoothly with excellent participant compliance with the urine collection protocol, as well as with the air sampling and hand-wipe procedures. QC samples collected to date include 20 blind split urine samples, 31 water blanks to assess in-field procedures for collecting and processing urine samples, 13 air sample field blanks, 12 hand-wipe field blanks and 5 surface wipe field blanks. NIOSH is tracking the QC performance of the laboratories. Urine analyses for total and free BPA have been reported by CDC for the first three study sites;analysis of urine samples for the fourth site is in-progress. Results of air, hand-wipe, and surface wipe sample analyses performed by NIOSHS contract laboratory, have been received for all four study sites. Creatinine analyses are being performed in-house and are complete for the first three study sites. An Access database has been developed for the field study data. Data continue to be entered into this database as it becomes available and data entry is checked for accuracy.
