THE MEASUREMENT AND DISTRIBUTION OF WOOD DUST

Submitted: 25 June 2012
Accepted: 25 June 2012
Published: 31 March 2010
Abstract Views: 3092
PDF: 7347
Publisher's note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Authors

In Italy, the woodworking industry presents many issues in terms of occupational health and safety. This study on exposure to wood dust could contribute to the realization of a prevention model in order to limit exposure to carcinogenic agents to the worker. The sampling methodology illustrated the analysis of dust emissions from the woodworking machinery in operation throughout the various processing cycles. The quantitative and qualitative assessment of exposure was performed using two different methodologies. The levels of wood dust were determined according to EN indications and sampling was conducted using IOM and Cyclon personal samplers. The qualitative research of wood dust was performed using an advanced laser air particle counter. This allowed the number of particles present to be counted in real time. The results obtained allowed for an accurate assessment of the quality of the dust emitted inside the workplace during the various processing phases. The study highlighted the distribution of air particles within the different size classes, the exact number of both thin and ultra-thin dusts, and confirmed the high concentration of thin dust particles which can be very harmful to humans.

Dimensions

Altmetric

PlumX Metrics

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Citations

How to Cite

Proto, A. R., Zimbalatti, G. and Negri, M. (2010) “THE MEASUREMENT AND DISTRIBUTION OF WOOD DUST”, Journal of Agricultural Engineering, 41(1), pp. 25–31. doi: 10.4081/jae.2010.1.25.