Characteristics of welding fume aerosol investigated in three Swedish workshops

Abstract

Potentially high human exposures to nanometer sized airborne particles occur due to welding and other thermal processes in industrial environments. Detailed field measurements of physical and chemical particle characteristics were performed in three work-shops in Sweden. Measurements were performed both in the plume 5-20 cm above the welding point and in the background air (more than 5 m away from the nearest known particle source). Particle number and mass concentrations were measured on-line. A low pressure impactor was used for size-resolved chemical particle composition. The in-plume measurements generated the chemical signatures for different welding processes. These signatures were then used to identify contributions from various processes to the particle concentrations in different size classes. The background number and mass concentrations increased by more than an order of magnitude during intense activities in the work-shops compared to low activities during breaks. © 2009 IOP Publishing Ltd.