Respirable quartz exposure on two mediumsized farms in southern Mozambique

摘要

Background: Little is known about the potential for overexposure to respirable quartz in farming, in most parts of the world. Objectives: To measure respirable dust and quartz exposure of tractor operators on two medium-sized dry climate farms. Methods: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study of dust exposure of four tractor operators. Farms were selected by convenience sampling. The MDHS 14/3 and FTIR MDHS 101 HSE methods were used to measure dust and to analyze the mass of quartz in dust, respectively. Results: Seventy respirable dust measurements were done. Respirable dust and quartz ranged from 0.01 to 2.88 and 0.001 to 0.30 mg/m3, respectively. All operators had at least one respirable quartz exposure above 0.1 mg/m3. Only 17% of respirable quartz concentrations were lower than the ACGIH TLV of 0.025 mg/m3. Conclusion: The potential for overexposure to respirable quartz was demonstrated. There was a great deal of exposure variability on these farms which has implications for sampling strategies for dust in farming.