Preparation and Certification of Two New Bulk Welding Fume Reference Materials for Use in Laboratories Undertaking Analysis of Occupational Hygiene Samples

Abstract

Workers can be exposed to fume, arising from welding activities, which contain toxic metals and metalloids. Occupational hygienists need to assess and ultimately minimize such exposure risks. The monitoring of the concentration of particles in workplace air is one assessment approach whereby fume, from representative welding activities, is sampled onto a filter and returned to a laboratory for analysis. Inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry are generally employed as instrumental techniques of choice for the analysis of such filter samples. An inherent difficulty, however, with inductively coupled plasma-based analytical techniques is that they typically require a sample to be presented for analysis in the form of a solution. The efficiency of the required dissolution step relies heavily upon the skill and experience of the analyst involved. A useful tool in assessing the efficacy of this dissolution step would be the availability and subsequent analysis of welding fume reference materials with stated elemental concentrations and matrices that match as closely as possible the matrix composition of welding fume samples submitted to laboratories for analysis. This article describes work undertaken at the Health and Safety Laboratory to prepare and certify two new bulk welding fume reference materials that can be routinely used by analysts to assess the performance of the digestion procedures they employ in their laboratories.

Phosphate Buffer Solubility and Oxidative Potential of Single Metals or Multielement Particles of Welding Fumes

“…The total elemental mass fractions of the two certified reference materials (CRMs) of welding fumes, stainless steel (SSWF-1) and mild steel (MSWF-1), are reported in Table A3 of Appendix A. These materials from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE, UK) produced in 2012 were collected from ventilation ducts located above robotic welding stations in a car assembly plant and were subsequently processed in the laboratory [75]. The particles in both CRMs are smaller than 200 µm and form homogeneous finely divided particulate powders.…”

“…As far as we know, there are only two types of certified reference materials (CRMs) for WF commercially available: stainless steel (SSWF-1) and mild steel (MSWF-1) welding fumes. One WF CRM only certified for its chromium content exists although it is too expensive for routine uses [75]. In this study, we used a method of extraction and analysis of the fraction of transition metals of SSWF-1 and MSWF-1 soluble in a phosphate buffer solution (PB-soluble) under specific conditions (detailed in Sections 2.4 and 2.6), adapted from Caboche et al [68].…”

Low-cost reusable sensor for cobalt and nickel detection in aerosols using adsorptive cathodic square-wave stripping voltammetry

“…Welding fume reference materials (SSWF-1 and MSWF-1) (the preparation was described in HSL report AS/2012/12 [40]) were digested using aqua regia (3:1 of hydrochloric acid: nitric acid). The sample masses and volumes of aqua regia solution, water, and 2 M sodium bicarbonate (for neutralization) used are shown in Table S2.…”

Atomic spectrometry update – a review of advances in environmental analysis

“…The three congurations had different applications. The peak jump isotope mode was preferred for determining F, S and 35 Cl/ 37 Cl but the multicollection isotope mode gave comparable precisions more quickly in the determination of water contents and H isotopes. The multicollection element mode had higher sensitivity than the two isotope modes but could not be used for the measurement of water content because of matrix effects.…”