Leakage of acrylamides from a tunnel construction work: exposure monitoring and health effects to humans and animals

Background The construction of a railway tunnel through Hallandsås, a mountain ridge in the south-west of Sweden was initiated in 1992. The existing old railway passing this ridge was considered to be a needles eye for railway connections from western Scandinavia to the continent (Fig. 1). A tunnel together with the prospected bridge from Malmö to Copenhagen (completed in year 2000) would be economically important, narrowing Norway and Sweden to the continent.