Quantitative Modelling of Occupational Exposure to Airborne Nanoparticles

Abstract

It is important to quantify the exposures experienced by workers in order to implement procedures to reduce exposure as well in the short-term but also to evaluate the impact of exposure on health in the long-term. As it stands measurement of engineered nanomaterials (ENM) is not straightforward and so we increasingly look for exposure models and tools to estimate the exposures experienced by workers. Here we describe two such models which are being used to estimate size-resolved concentrations in space and time after emission, while accounting for agglomeration, dispersion, diffusion and deposition. The CFD model describes the space in detail and models how the particles move around the room in three dimensions, while the two-box model simplifies the space to two boxes. Though they differ in their complexity they both aim to evaluate the concentrations in the space and time, the results of which could be used to evaluate worker’s exposure to ENM from specific processes.