Passive personal air sampling of dust in a working environment—A pilot study

Abstract

The aim of this study was to make a preliminary evaluation of the University of North Carolina passive aerosol sampler (UNC sampler) for personal air sampling of particles. Nine personal air samplings of respirable fraction were conducted in an open-pit mine, with pairwise UNC samplers and a respirable cyclone mounted on the chest of workers. UNC samples were analyzed with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and to some extent energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). Respirable cyclone filter samples were weighed. Correlations and particle elemental compositions were described. Microscopic imaging of the collection surface showed that the particles were heterogeneously deposited across the surface of the UNC sampler. Collected particles were shaped as gravel particles and the resulting particle size distribution in air showed a peak at ca. 3 mm aerodynamic diameter, similarly to what has previously been reported from the same mine. The elemental composition indicated mineral origin. All correlations between the airborne mass concentrations from UNC samplers and respirable cyclones (Pearson ¼ 0.54 and Spearman ¼ 0.43) and between pairs of parallel UNC samplers (Pearson ¼ 0.55 and Spearman ¼ 0.67) were weak. The UNC sampler mass concentrations were approximately 30 times higher than those measured with the respirable cyclone. In conclusion, the UNC sampler, when used for personal sampling in a mine, provides a reasonable particle size distribution and the deposited particles appeared to be of mineral origin and not from textile or skin but the approximately 30-fold overestimation of mass concentrations when comparing with respirable cyclone sampling indicates that further improvements are necessary. Positioning of the sampler may be critical and moving the UNC sampler from the chest to e.g. the top of a helmet might be an improvement. Grounding of the sampler in order to avoid static electricity might also be useful. The UNC sampler should continue to be researched for personal sampling, as passive sampling might become a useful alternative to more laborious sampling techniques.

Operationalizing the Exposome Using Passive Silicone Samplers

“…Passive samplers, which rely on less invasive technologies such as adsorbent strips and wearables like silicone wristbands, pouches, and badges, provide an alternative strategy to screen for both known and unknown exposures in large populations. PSDs validated for exposures with known uptake rates, such as benzene or trichloroethylene, have been widely used in occupational monitoring studies for industrial chemicals [23,[48][49][50][51][52][53][54]. However, for most PSDs, ongoing research is focused on better understanding the mechanisms for chemical equilibrium with sampler matrices, which can vary by chemical molecular weight, media pore size, and silicone/air partitioning coefficients [55].…”

Atomic spectrometry update – a review of advances in environmental analysis

“…Repeated analyses over nine sessions and seven different mounts agreed within analytical uncertainty for zircons Temora 2, FC1, R33, QGNG, Plešovice and 91500 when normalised to Mud Tank zircon, which was regarded as a useful QC material with typical repeatability of #0.3& (2SD). Caution was sounded when using other zircons from the Duluth Complex (FC1, AS57 and AS3) as RMs for this purpose as they had an excessive scatter of d 18 O values associated with low-U zircon grains. Yang et al 229 assessed the O isotope homogeneity of six well-known apatite RMs and two in-house apatites by SIMS.…”

“…A comparison of dry deposition samplers, based on 17 single-particle SEM characterisation of collected dust, concluded that differences in deposition rates between sampler types did indeed exist. A side-by-side comparison exercise, in which passive UNC samplers were worn by mine workers alongside pumped respirable air samplers as reference, demonstrated 18 that there was a ca. 30-fold over-estimation of sampled particle mass.…”

“…To supplement the available RMs, three new garnet RMs were characterised (GRS2, GRS-JH2 and CAP02) that had grossular contents of 88.3 AE 1.2% (2SD), 83.3 AE 0.8% and 32.5 AE 3.0%, respectively. Micro-scale homogeneity in O isotope composition was established from multiple SIMS and reference d18 O values obtained by CO 2 laser uorination. A SIMS protocol for in situ B isotopic microanalysis of basaltic glass was developed304 with the aim of identifying different degrees of alteration of basalt glasses during magma generation and evolution in the mantle.…”