Ultrafine, fine and coarse airborne particle mass concentration in workplaces

Abstract

As epidemiological studies have shown a significant association between exposure to particles and mortality and morbidity, depending on their different deposition efficiency in the pulmonary region, size-segregated particulate matter (PM) samples were collected in workplaces where high PM concentrations were expected and compared with the results from urban and background atmospheres.We investigated the following workplaces: an analytical chemistry laboratory, a wastewater treatment plant, a livestock farming activity, a municipal solid waste composting plant, and a waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) Treatment Facility. The highest PM concentrations were found in the last three sites.Ultrafine PM (PM0.1: aerodynamic diameter less than 0.1 μm) mass concentrations also proved to be especially high in the livestock farming activity, in the municipal solid waste composting plant, and in the WEEE treatment facility, ranging between 4.7 and 19.8 μg m−3 as mean values, suggesting that this particulate fraction should be monitored and controlled. On the other hand, in both natural and urban environments, ultrafine particles occurred at concentrations 0.1–0.3 times the workplace values. It would have been interesting to determine the increase in cancer risk due to ultrafine particles, but cohort studies on PM0.1 are lacking. Therefore, effects on the workers were investigated starting from the lifetime average daily PM2.5 dose. Even with this limitation, the results show that people working in municipal solid waste composting plant and in a WEEE Treatment Facility are exposed to a not negligible additional lifetime risk on respect citizens.