Assessment of particle size distribution of health- relevant aerosol exposures of primary lead smelter workers

摘要

Experiments were conducted at a primary lead smelter to investigate the particle size distribution of lead-containing aerosol to which workers exposed, using personal inhalable dust spec- trometers(PIDS)in specific smelter process areas. A total of 46 PIDS samples were evaluated, taken from the ore storage/mill, sinter plant, blast furnace and dross furnace process areas. Continuous particle size distributions were derived from the raw PIDS data employing a recently- Developed optimisation routine, enabling determination of the percentages of inhalable, thoracic And respirable aerosol(in terms of lead content)as fractions of total lead aerosol.