2012
issn 1651-4270 isbn 978-91-7668-887-8
Helena Nilssson graduated with a Master degree in Chemistry at Örebro University in 2006 and has been a postgraduate student at the Man-Technology-Environ-ment (MTM) Research Centre, Örebro University. The work of her Ph. D. thesis was performed as collaboration between MTM Research Center and Occupational and Environmental Medicine (AMM) at Örebro University Hospital.
The work focused on occupational exposure to per- and polyfluorinated substances (PFASs) when using fluorinated ski wax. A group of professional ski wax technicians were followed during the cross-country skiing World Cup events from 2007-2011. For the athletes to peak their performances they are dependent on the technicians’ abilities to prepare the optimum combination of glide and grip of the skis. The fluorinated substances have physical-chemical properties which make them indispensable in this sense. In the preparation of the skis the technicians are exposed to PFASs emitted from the ski wax.The exposure of a number of fluorinated compounds was assessed by continuous sampling of air and particulate aerosol in the wax cabins and sampling of the technicians’ blood.
The study was initiated by an event that took place in 2006. In a larger study of fluorinated substances in blood of the general Swedish population one sample stood out with elevated concentrations of several perfluorinated substances. It was found out that this person used to wax a lot of skis during the winter. It was also known that ski wax contains fluorinated additives and the hypothesis developed that the elevated blood levels were caused by exposure to fluorinated ski wax.
Örebro Studies in Chemistry 11
örebro 2012 Doctoral Dissertation
Occupational exposure to fluorinated ski wax
Helena Nilsson Chemistry
