Authors: Meibian Zhang Le Jian Pingfan Bin Mingluan Xing Jianlin Lou Liming Cong Hua Zou
Publish Date: 2013/10/04
Volume: 15, Issue: 11, Pages: 2016-
Abstract
Workplace exposure to nanoparticles from gas metal arc welding GMAW process in an automobile manufacturing factory was investigated using a combination of multiple metrics and a comparison with background particles The number concentration NC lungdeposited surface area concentration SAC estimated SAC and mass concentration MC of nanoparticles produced from the GMAW process were significantly higher than those of background particles before welding P 001 A bimodal size distribution by mass for welding particles with two peak values ie 10000–18000 and 560–320 nm and a unimodal size distribution by number with 1907nm mode size or 1549nm geometric size were observed Nanoparticles by number comprised 607 of particles whereas nanoparticles by mass only accounted for 182 of the total particles The morphology of welding particles was dominated by the formation of chainlike agglomerates of primary particles The metal composition of these welding particles consisted primarily of Fe Mn and Zn The size distribution morphology and elemental compositions of welding particles were significantly different from background particles Working activities sampling distances from the source air velocity engineering control measures and background particles in working places had significant influences on concentrations of airborne nanoparticle In addition SAC showed a high correlation with NC and a relatively low correlation with MC These findings indicate that the GMAW process is able to generate significant levels of nanoparticles It is recommended that a combination of multiple metrics is measured as part of a welldesigned sampling strategy for airborne nanoparticles Key exposure factors such as particle agglomeration/aggregation background particles working activities temporal and spatial distributions of the particles air velocity engineering control measures should be investigated when measuring workplace exposure to nanoparticlesThis research work was supported by the Health Standards Fund of Ministry of Health of China 20130215 National Nature Science Funds of China No 81001242 and Science and Technology Fund from Health Bureau of Zhejiang Province No 2012KYB050 We are grateful to Professor Miller Greg Griffith University Australia for his suggestions throughout this study
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