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COMBINED HYGIENIC ASSESSMENT OF DUST FACTOR AT THERMAL POWER PLANTS

COMBINED HYGIENIC ASSESSMENT OF DUST FACTOR AT THERMAL POWER PLANTS

https://doi.org/10.33573/ujoh2016.03.042

Moshkovskiy V. E.

COMBINED HYGIENIC ASSESSMENT OF DUST FACTOR AT THERMAL POWER PLANTS

State Institution "Institute for Occupational Health of the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine", Kyiv

Full article (PDF), UKR

Introduction. Electric power is a part of an energy complex in Ukraine. The main supplier of electricity and heat in this complex are thermal power plants, which mostly use coal as a fuel. Thousands of workers at these enterprises are exposed to physical and chemical factors of the working environment as well as to dust of a complicated chemical composition and its fibrous component has not yet been investigated in Ukraine.

Purpose of the study was to study physical and chemical properties of industrial dust and elimination of asbestos fibers from the thermal insulation to the air of the working zone of workers at thermal power plants.

Materials and methods. The chemical analysis of the thermal insulation samples and industrial dust was investigated by the method of atomic emission spectrometry with inductively coupled plasma. In order to establish in the presence and a type of asbestos in the samples an X-ray phase (RSFA) and X-ray spectral analysis (RSA) analysis have been conducted. The concentrations of asbestos-containing dust and respirable countable fibers in the air of the turbine house (TH) were determined by gravimetric and calculation methods.

Results. Physico-chemical analysis of industrial dust indicates the presence of mostly fine dust in the TH, containing light and heavy toxic metals as well as minerals, including chrysotile and amphibole asbestos`s impurities. The maximum single concentration of asbestos- containing dust at the most examined workplaces exceeded the standard value -2 mg/m3 and created a significant dust formation, resulting in pollution of the working zone. In turn, the concentration of respirable fibers at most working places did not exceed MAC (1 fib./сm3). Only at some points there have been recorded a minor excess.

Conclusion. The obtained data show availability of polydisperse, multicomponent inorganic dust with a fibrous component (chrysotile asbestos and amphibole impurities), which can exert a general toxic carcinogenic effect on the human body with further development of bronchopulmonary and cancer diseases.

Key words: thermal power plants, chrysotile asbestos, dust

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