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Particle and Aerosol Research Vol. 17, No. 1, March 2021, Pages 1-8 |
ISSN : 1738-8716 (Print) ISSN : 2287-8130 (Online) |
Occupational exposure to dust and respirable quartz in coal briquettes ash handling worker
Boowook Kim1)
1)Institute of Occupation and Environment, Korea Workers¡¯ Compensation and Welfare Service
*Corresponding author. Tel.: +82-32-540-4997, E-mail: labor7@gmail.com
Received 07 January 2021, Revised 07 March 2021, Accepted 16 March 2021, Available online 31 March 2021
https://dx.doi.org/10.11629/jpaar.2021.17.1.001
Abstracts
The purpose of this study is to assess respirable crystalline silica (RCS) exposure levels in workers who collect and
dispose used coal briquette ash (CBA) in sanitation companies that are subcontracted by one medium-sized local
government on the collection of municipal household waste (MHW), and to analyze the quartz content in CBA.
When the CBA powder that undergone specialized pretreatment in several steps were subjected to mineral
identification and quantitative analysis using X-ray diffraction (XRD), it was found that quartz represented 18%, and
in addition, mullite, and plagioclase were included. For two CBA collectors, samples were collected by the personal
sampling evaluation method. After respirable dust was collected in accordance with the National Institute for
Occupational Safety and Health 7500 method, the concentration of quartz was analyzed using XRD. Meanwhile, a portable real-time dust monitor (Sidepak AM520, TSI Inc., USA) was also used to observe the dust exposure level for
each time zone and job task.
The RCS exposure level of one worker was as high as 0.024 §·/§©, which was the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) Threshold Limit Values (TLV) level. The other worker also exhibited a concentration of 0.013 §·/§©, which was more than half of TLV. The Sidepak results revealed that the work of collecting CBA and loading it onto a vehicle was hardly exposed to the dust of a significant level. It was found,
however, that the work of transferring the collected CBA to a container through a conveyor belt was exposed to a very high average respirable dust concentration of 2.238 §·/§©.
The results of this study confirmed that quartz, which is crystalline silica and a carcinogen, is contained in CBA, one of municipal household waste (MHW), in high concentration. It was also confirmed that workers are exposed to high RCS concentrations while transferring collected CBA into a container. Although each local government in South
Korea handles CBA in different ways, it is imperative to investigate the CBA exposure level of sanitation workers and improve their working conditions.
Keywords
Coal briquettes ash, Dust, Exposure, Quartz, Worker
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