Segregation of respirable dust for chemical and toxicological analyses

Abstract

Respirable dust can pass beyond ciliated airways of the respiratory tract and influence adverse health effects. Health effects can be studied using samples generated from bulk dust segregation. Because previous segregation methods diverge from size-selection criteria of the international convention for respirable particles (ICRP), a method was developed to approximate the ICRP. The method was compared to an ideal sampler by measuring the sample collection bias. The comparison shows that the uncertainty due to the bias was 0.10 based on European Standard EN13205:2014 criteria, which indicates that the segregator effectively follows the ICRP. Respirable particle size distributions were confirmed by an aerodynamic particle sizer and by computer-controlled scanning electron microscopy. Consequently, a systematic way to generate respirable powders for health effects studies and chemical analyses was developed.