A PERSONAL INSPIRABLE AEROSOL SPECTROMETER FOR APPLICATIONS IN OCCUPATIONAL HYGIENE RESEARCH

Abstract

This paper describes the development of a new personal inspirable aerosol spectrometer, small enough to be worn on the body in the lapel position, for applications in occupational hygiene where more detailed information about the dust is required in order to make further progress in investigating dust-related health effects. It consists of an entry designed to select the inspirable fraction of an aerosol, followed by an eight-stage cascade impactor designed with zero wall losses to classify aerodynamically the sampled inspirable particulate. An analytical technique is described that takes the raw mass data from the spectrometer and provides, firstly, the continuous aerodynamic size distribution of the inspirable dust and, secondly, the aerodynamic size distribution and mass concentration of any subfraction that can be defined mathematically (i.e. respirable, tracheobronchial, etc.). The instrument has been calibrated and tested in the laboratory and has been employed in a number of underground trials in British coalmines.