Glass D C
Institute of Occupational Health, Birmingham University, U.K.
Ann Occup Hyg. 1990 Oct;34(5):509-19. doi: 10.1093/annhyg/34.5.509.
The paper describes a 4-month study of water reclamation workers in a rural area. Workers were chosen randomly from each of three groups: permanent site workers, mobile workers and tanker drivers. The exposure to H2S of each of these workers was monitored with pumped long-term colorimetric tubes over 4 days. The reclamation sites were visited over the period of the study and monitored with a hand-held H2S-measuring instrument to identify sources of possible exposure. Data on the weather conditions were also collected. Routine exposure to H2S was found to be low; only 14% of exposures were above the minimum detection limit of 0.1 ppm 8-h time-weighted average (TWA). None of the 190 valid samples were above the 8-h TWA occupational exposure standard (OES) of 10 ppm. If all the exposure had occurred in a 10 min period, 6% of exposures would have been above the 10 min TWA limit. The hand-held readings and knowledge of the work pattern suggest that this was unlikely to have been the case. Most of the positive personal exposure measurements were associated with tanker drivers who were not dealing with treated sludge only. There was a statistically significant difference between the likelihood of exposure to H2S occurring in warmer, drier weather and in cooler, wetter weather. Sites and jobs which can result in transient exposure to H2S are identified.
本文描述了一项针对农村地区水回收工人进行的为期4个月的研究。工人从三组中随机选取：固定场地工人、流动工人和油罐车司机。使用抽气式长期比色管对这些工人每人的硫化氢暴露情况进行了4天的监测。在研究期间对回收场地进行了走访，并用手持式硫化氢测量仪器进行监测，以确定可能的暴露源。还收集了天气状况数据。发现常规硫化氢暴露水平较低；只有14%的暴露量高于0.1 ppm的8小时时间加权平均（TWA）最低检测限。190个有效样本中没有一个高于10 ppm的8小时TWA职业暴露标准（OES）。如果所有暴露都发生在10分钟内，6%的暴露量会高于10分钟TWA限值。手持式读数和工作模式信息表明情况不太可能如此。大多数个人暴露阳性测量结果与并非只处理经处理污泥的油罐车司机有关。在温暖干燥天气和凉爽潮湿天气下发生硫化氢暴露的可能性之间存在统计学上的显著差异。确定了可能导致短暂硫化氢暴露的场地和工作。
