Ultrafine particle characteristics in seven industrial plants

Ultrafine particles are considered as a possible cause of some of the adverse health effects caused by airborne particles. In this study, the particle characteristics were measured in seven Swedish industrial plants, with a special focus on the ultrafine particle fraction. Number concentration, size distribution, surface area concentration, and mass concentration were measured at 10 different job activities, including fettling, laser cutting, welding, smelting, core making, moulding, concreting, grinding, sieving powders, and washing machine goods. A thorough particle characterization is necessary in workplaces since it is not clear yet which choice of ultrafine particle metric is the best to measure in relation to health effects. Job activities were given a different order of rank depending on what particle metric was measured. An especially high number concentration (130 x 10(3) cm(-3)) and percentage of ultrafine particles (96%) were found at fettling of aluminium, whereas the highest surface area concentration (up to 3800 mum(2) cm(-3)) as well as high PM10 (up to 1 mg m(-3)) and PM1 (up to 0.8 mg m(-3)) were found at welding and laser cutting of steel. The smallest geometric mean diameter (22 nm) was found at core making (geometric standard deviation: 1.9).