Affiliations: [a] Department of Community Health, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia | [b] Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia | [c] Environmental and Occupational Health Programme, School of Health Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kubang Kerian, Kelantan, Malaysia
Correspondence:
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Address for correspondence: Ainun Hamzah Nurul, Environmental and Occupational Health Programme, School of Health Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Health Campus, 16150 Kubang Kerian, Kelantan, Malaysia. Tel.: +609 767 7804; Fax: +609 766 7515; E-mail: [email protected].
Abstract: BACKGROUND: Steel manufacturing produces dust, fumes, and pollutant gases that may give adverse health effects to the respiratory function of workers. Improper occupational hygiene practice in the workplace will affect both workers wellbeing and productivity. OBJECTIVE: To assess the level of particulate matter [(PM2.5, PM10, and Total Particulate Matter (TPM)], and trace metal dust concentrations in different sections of a steel plant and compare with the occupational exposure values. METHODS: The work environmental parameters of the particulate matters were evaluated using Indoor Air Quality, while metal dust concentrations were measured using portable personal air sampler. A total of 184 personal samples were randomly collected from workers in three major sections; steel making plant, direct reduced plant, and support group. Trace metal dust concentrations were subjected to wet mineral acid mixture digestion and analysed by atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS). RESULTS: The overall average PM2.5 concentration observed was varied according to the section: steel making plant was 0.18 mg/m3, direct reduced iron plant was 0.05 mg/m3, and support plant was 0.05 mg/m3. Average PM 10 concentration in steel making shop (SMS) plant, direct reduced (DR) plant, and support plant were 0.70 mg/m3, 0.84 mg/m3, and 0.58 mg/m3, respectively. The average TWA8 of trace metal dusts (cobalt and chromium) in all the sections exceeded 1 to 3 times the ACGIH prescribed values, OSHA PELs, NIOSH RELs as well as USECHH OSHA, whereas TWA8 concentration of nickel for each section did not exceed the occupational exposure values. CONCLUSIONS: The average PM2.5, PM10 and TPM did not exceed the prescribed values, while average trace metal dust concentration TWA8 for cobalt and chromium in all plants exceeded occupational exposure prescribed values. However, the nickel found did not exceed the prescribed values in all the plants except for NIOSH RELs.
Keywords: Particulate matter, trace metal dust, personal air sampling, steel plant
