Progress towards implementation of new aerosol industrial hygiene standards, with special reference to the aluminium industry

During recent years, progress has been made towards the establishment of particle size-selective criteria by which industrial aerosol exposure assessment - and, ultimately, standards — may be placed on a firmer health-related basis than previously. Three biologically-relevant fractions have been identified; inhalable (particles inhaled through the nose and/or mouth during breathing), thoracic (the subfraction of inhalable which penetrates into the lung below the larnyx), and respirable (the subfraction of inhalable which penetrates down to the alveolar region) and conventions for these have been agreed. Such conventions take the form of curves which should be regarded as ‘yardsticks’ for sampling instrumentation. In this paper, a summary is given of experiments in the workplaces of several industries in which a new personal sampler for the inhalable fraction is compared alongside the samplers which had been used previously. The results enable assessment of the impact of the implementation of the new standards. Such studies can aid in progress towards implementation of the new standards, including in the aluminium production industry.