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Annals of Occupational Hygiene Advance Access published online on May 15, 2009
Annals of Occupational Hygiene, doi:10.1093/annhyg/mep033
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Occupational Hygiene Society

Ultrafine Particle Characteristics in Seven Industrial Plants

Karine Elihn1,* and Peter Berg2

1 Department of Applied Environmental Science, Atmospheric Science Unit, Stockholm University, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
2 Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Örebro University Hospital, 701 85 Örebro, Sweden

* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel: +46-8-674-7763; fax: +46-8-674-7325; e-mail: Karine.Elihn{at}itm.su.se

Ultrafine particles are considered as a possible cause of some of the adverse health effects caused by airborne particles. In this study, the particle characteristics were measured in seven Swedish industrial plants, with a special focus on the ultrafine particle fraction. Number concentration, size distribution, surface area concentration, and mass concentration were measured at 10 different job activities, including fettling, laser cutting, welding, smelting, core making, moulding, concreting, grinding, sieving powders, and washing machine goods. A thorough particle characterization is necessary in workplaces since it is not clear yet which choice of ultrafine particle metric is the best to measure in relation to health effects. Job activities were given a different order of rank depending on what particle metric was measured. An especially high number concentration (130 x 103 cm–3) and percentage of ultrafine particles (96%) were found at fettling of aluminium, whereas the highest surface area concentration (up to 3800 µm2 cm–3) as well as high PM10 (up to 1 mg m–3) and PM1 (up to 0.8 mg m–3) were found at welding and laser cutting of steel. The smallest geometric mean diameter (22 nm) was found at core making (geometric standard deviation: 1.9).

exposure • particle characterization • size distribution • ultrafine particles • workplace aerosols

Received August 21, 2008; in final form March 13, 2009


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