• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.181-195
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• 1997

The purpose of this study was to investigate factors affecting the composition and concentrations of fumes generated from various types of welding processes. The results are as follows. 1. Iron(Fe), zinc(Zn) and manganese(Mn) were predominant in Welding fumes. The Fe content in total fumes was 25.5% in coated electrode and 28.2% in $CO_2$ are welding, and the Zn content was 4.5% and 9.1%, respectively, and the Mn was 3.6% and 7.8%, respectively. 2. It was found that the important factors determining composition and concentration of fumes were type of industries, type of welding processes, type and composition of electrodes, composition of base metals, confinement of workplaces or condition of ventilation, work intensity, coated metals such as lead and Zn in paint. 3. The Mn content in airborne fumes was highly correlated with that of electrode(r=0.77, p<0.01) and was about 4 times higher than that in electrodes or base metals. The results lindicate that Mn is well evaporated into air during welding. The higher vapor pressure of Mn may explain this phenomenon. 4. the airborne total fume concentrations were significantly different among types of industries(p<0.001). The airborne total fume concentration was higher in order of sleel-structure manufacturing($GM=15.1mg/m^3$), shipbuilding($GM=13.2mg/m^3$), automobile-component manufacturing ($GM=7.8mg/m^3$) and automobile assembling industry($GM=3.0mg/m^3$) 5. The airbone total fume concentration was 6 times higher in $CO_2$ welding than in coated electrode welding, and approximately 3 times higher in confined area than in open area, in steel-structure manufacturing industry. 6. The concentration of welding fume outside welding helmet was about 2 times higher than that inside it. It is recommened that air sampling be done inside helmet to evaulate worker's exposure accurately, for it has an outstanding effect on reducing worker exposure to fumes and other contaminants.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.48-57
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• 2016

Objectives: This study was conducted to evaluate the accuracy and precision of airborne metal analysis using polyvinyl chloride(PVC) membrane filter by pretreatment methods. Methods: A total of 75 spiked PVC samples for Cr, Fe and Mn ranged from 6 ug/sample to 40 ug/sample were used to evaluate recovery rates for three pretreatment methods: acid extraction, hot plate ashing and microwave digestion. For Mn, an additional 75 spiked mixed cellulose ester(MCE) membrane filters were analysed to compare the recovery rates of PVC samples. All samples were analysed with an inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometer(ICP-OES) and manganese samples were additionally analyzed by atomic absorption spectrometer(AAS). Results: The overall mean recovery rates of PVC samples for Cr, Fe and Mn were 90% or higher regardless of pretreatment methods, but there were statistically significant differences in recovery rates for Cr(p<0.05) and Mn(p<0.01) samples by pretreatment methods. The biases and the coefficient variations of PVC samples for three metals pretreated with three kinds of pretreatment methods ranged from 1.7% to 4.7% and from 1.6% to 6.5%, respectively. The manganese PVC samples pretreated by microwave digestion and analyzed with ICP-OES had the lowest bias at 1.9% and also showed lower bias than the bias for MCE samples, 2.7%. Conclusions: In order to accurately analyze the metals sampled with PVC membrane filters, microwave digestion and ICP-OES can be recommended.