Indoor Air Quality in Steel Rolling Industries and Possible Health Effects

Abstract

Indoor air quality has significant impacts on occupational health, workers' comfort and their productivity. The aim of this study was to assess indoor air quality in a rolling steel plant and to identify corrective measures that could help improve indoor air quality. Many air quality indicators, namely: CO, CO2, VOCs, NOx, SO2, O3, PM10 and PM2.5 were assessed as part of the study. The results obtained showed that higher concentrations of CO, VOCs, were found at the furnace area, while the rolling and quenching process area has the higher concentration of SO2 and CO2 respectively. PM10 and PM2.5 exceeded the international standards in most of the measuring points. Potential negative health effects are expected due to the high temperature and VOCs at the furnace area in addition to the high particulate matters level in all points. Hazard indices (HI) were found to be >1 for all sites indicating possible health risk mainly due to the particulate matter. The respiratory system is the most affected organ, followed by cardiovascular system, then the eye irritation. Based on the potential health risks identified, the paper concludes with some recommendations for protecting workers' health. These include setting local standards for indoor air quality, applying job rotation strategy, periodical medical checks, good ventilation and conducting further studies concerning long-term effect of indoor air quality on occupational health.

Impacts of the Indoor Air Quality on the Health of the Employee and Protection against These Impacts

“…They concluded by underlining the need for further research in order to better depict the complicated relationship between IAQ and health interaction symptoms [11]. A research conducted on the effects of indoor air quality on the health of workers in Middle East showed that the first most affected part of workers' bodies is their respiratory system; the second most affected one is their cardiovascular system, and the third most affected one is their visual system [12].…”

“…As a result, global warming caused by greenhouse effect has become a very important public problem. The rate of carbon dioxide in today's air is around 390 ppm and it increases by 2 ppm every year [8][9][10][11][12]. Workplace Exposure Limits (WELs) apply to healthy people who are at working age and directly exposed to pollutants at their workplaces.…”

“…In the light of this, it is more appropriate to apply lower outdoor air quality guidelines set by the World Health Organization and United Kingdom Air Quality Strategy (Defra 2007) exposure of the general population also for the indoor environments. The limits determined by HMIP (1993) may be used for the pollutants which do not fall under this scope [8][9][10][11][12]28].…”

Potential of Passive Sampling and Plant Absorption to Quantify Inhalation Exposure to Volatile Organic Compounds

“…The inhalation exposure to non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic VOCs has followed the conventional approaches proposed by U.S. EPA (U.S. EPA, 2009b) and previous studies (Al-Zboon and Forton, 2019;Ari et al, 2020;El-Hashemy and Ali, 2018;Kitwattanavong et al, 2013;Loonsamrong et al, 2015;Xing et al, 2018 Non-carcinogenic risk assessment for the mixture of VOCs species was determined as the Hazard Index (HI), which is defined as follows:…”

Application of industrial air cleaners in production halls

“…Measurements and analysis within the study conducted by Abdullah et al [7], which refers to IAQ a refinery industry, included both PM 2.5 and PM 10 . The conclusion of research concerning IAQ in steel rolling industry, performed by Al-Zboon et al [8], is that PM 10 and PM 2.5 exceeded the international standards at most of the measuring points. Furthermore, within the study related to IAQ in steel making industry, Al-Zboon and Forton [9] reported extremely high concentrations of PM 10 and PM 2.5 in the indoor air.…”