A Study on Analysis of Component and the States of Measurement of Airborne Organic Solvents in Korea

우리나라의 공기중 유기용제 측정실태 및 성분분석에 관한 연구

This study was performed to investigate components of organic solvents and present statues of environmental measurements with official records of working environmental measurements of 4,181 workplaces in 3,280 workshops used airborne organic solvents. 1. The mean working hour of 4,181 workplace producing airborne organic solvents in 3,280 workshops was 437±28.7min, but the mean sampling time for measurement of airborne organic solvents was identified to be 254±28.8min. In 73.0% of 4,181 samples the sampling frequencys were Full-period, single sample measurement. 2. The total 54 components of organic solvents were measured in total airborne samples of 4,181 workplace in 3,280 workshops in both of first and second half-year. These were divided into 38 components, Group 1 substances (5 components), Group 2 substances (31 components) and Group 3 substances (2 components), regulated by the Industrial Safety and Health Law, and other 16 components without legal duty of working environment measurement. The most common component in each half-year was Toluene (84.8%, 88.2%), which was followed by Xylene (464.4%, 51.7%), Methyl ethyl ketone (31.1%, 34.4%), n-Hexane (22.7%, 27.8%) and Benzene (20.4%, 21.5%) in frequency. Of legal duty free components, Ethyl benzen, Trimethyl benzene and Pentane were frequently detected. In conclusion, these results show that the present legal classification system of organic solvents needs to revise. Also these results suggest that it must be necessary to analyze the component of airborne organic solvents mixture and to evaluate their effects on workers' health for the effective management of working environment in workshops treating with organic solvents.