10th International Aerosol Conference September 2 - September 7, 2018 America's Center Convention Complex St. Louis, Missouri, USA
Abstract View
Assessment of Exposure to Bioaerosols and Heavy Metals in a Material Recovery Facility in Central Taiwan
HUI-MING LIU, Hungkuang University
Abstract Number: 1251 Working Group: Aerosol Exposure
Abstract Recently the world's energy and raw materials availability is progressively dwindling result in rapid development of the materials recycling industry. Bioaerosols and metal dusts are accompanied during materials recycling process and harm to human health. Hence, it is necessary to investigate the exposure to metals and bioaerosol among workers at resource material factories.
This study is to assess exposure of bioaerosols and metals from different working areas at a material recovery facility (MRF) in central Taiwan. In order to investigate species, concentrations and size distribution, airborne fungi and bacterial were taken by using an Anderson 6 stage viable impactor and Microbial Air Monitoring System-100 (MAS-100). Airborne dusts were sampled by a ten-stage micro-orifice uniform deposit cascade impactor (MOUDITM), followed analyzed concentrations of Cu, Zn, Cd, Cr, Mn, Ni, Pb and W by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP -OES).
In this study, the bioaerosol concentrations did not exceed the standard of occupational exposure limit. Aspergillus was the most predominant fungal isolates, with a mean concentration of 965.3 CFU/m3. Staphylococus warneri was the dominant bacterial isolates identified. Meanwhile, the most prevalent fungi occurred in the size range of 3.3~2.1 μm at recycling of PET bottles area. The most prevalent bacteria were found at recycling of metals area in ≧7.0 μm size range. The major metals in airborne dusts were Zn and Pb，with mean concentrations of 0.71 μg/m3 and 0.64 μg/m3, respectively.
This study indicated that relatively humility was associated with bioaerosol concentrations in MRF environment. Many major indicators of allergenic and toxigenic airborne fungi such as Aspergillus and Staphylococus warneri were found in the material recovery environments. The results obtained from this study may provide useful information for the implementation of management for material recovery facility.