Air monitoring of aromatic hydrocarbons during automobile spray painting for developing change schedule of respirator cartridges.

In the absence of End of Service Life Indicator (ESLI), a cartridge change schedule should be established for ensuring that cartridges are changed before their end of service life. Factors effecting service life of cartridges were evaluated, including the amount of atmospheric contamination with aromatic hydrocarbon vapors in the workplace, temperature, and relative humidity of the air. A new change schedule was established based on comparing the results of air monitoring and workplace conditions, laboratory experiment, and the NIOSH MultiVapor software. Spray painters were being exposed to aromatic hydrocarbons in a range exceeding occupational exposure limits. The cartridge change schedule was not effective and could no longer provide adequate protection against organic contaminants for sprayers. Change schedules for respirator cartridges should be reduced from 16-24 hours to 4 hours. NIOSH's service life software program could be applied to developing cartridge change schedules.