When added to herbicidal gels, polyacrylamides restrict herbicidal treatment to the bottom of lakes or reservoirs by allowing the herbicides to sink before they break up. The FDA has regulated the use of acrylamide and polyacrylamide in foods. Occupational exposure to the aqueous form is primarily confined to maintenance and repair operations and connection and disconnection for transport. Routine exposure is minimal for captive operations. Workers in the paper and pulp, construction, foundry, oil drilling, textiles, cosmetics, food processing, plastics, mining, and agricultural industries are potentially exposed to acrylamide.
Primary exposure occurs during the handling of the monomer.
It has been detected in effluent from a sewage treatment plant. Adsorption to sediment and volatilization is not appreciable. Bacteriologic degradation will likely depend on temperature fluctuations in temperate climates. Environmental contamination may result from disposal on land or from leaching of the residual monomer from polyacrylamides. Thirty-six of these facilities reported releases of acrylamide to the environment which were estimated to total 909,000 lb.