Annals of Occupational Hygiene Advance Access originally published online on April 30, 2009
Annals of Occupational Hygiene 2009 53(4):441-447; doi:10.1093/annhyg/mep024
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Methods for Measuring Performance of Vehicle Cab Air Cleaning Systems Against Aerosols and Vapours
Department of Process Engineering, Institut National de Recherche et Sécurité, rue du Morvan, 54500 Vandoeuvre, France
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. e-mail: denis.bemer{at}inrs.fr
Vehicle cabs equipped with an effective air cleaning and pressurization system, fitted to agricultural and off-road machineries, isolate drivers from the polluted environment, in which they are likely to work. These cabs provide protection against particulate and gaseous pollutants generated by these types of work activities. Two laboratory methods have been applied to determining the performance characteristics of two cabs of different design, namely, optical counting-based measurement of a potassium chloride (KCl) aerosol and fluorescein aerosol-based tracing. Results of cab confinement efficiency measurements agreed closely for these two methods implemented in the study. Measurements showed that high confinement efficiencies can be achieved with cabs, which are properly designed in ventilation/cleaning/airtightness terms. We also noted the importance of filter mounting airtightness, in which the smallest defect is reflected by significant degradation in cab performance. Determination of clean airflow rate by monitoring the decrease in test aerosol concentration in the test chamber gave excellent results. This method could represent an attractive alternative to methods involving gas tracing or air velocity measurement at blowing inlets.
Keywords: aerosol • cab • optical counter • tracing
Received December 31, 2008; in final form February 27, 2009