Journal
JOURNAL OF OCCUPATIONAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL HYGIENE
Volume 9, Issue 3, Pages 129-139Publisher
TAYLOR & FRANCIS INC
DOI: 10.1080/15459624.2011.652061
Keywords
dustiness; nanoparticle; risk assessment
Funding
- NIOSH [R01 OH008806-01]
- EPA [2005-STAR-B1]
- NIEHS [P30 ES05605-11]
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Respirable dustiness represents the tendency of a powder to generate respirable airborne dust during handling and therefore indicates the propensity for a powder to become an inhalation hazard. The dustiness of 14 powders, including 10 different nanopowders, was evaluated with the use of a novel low-mass dustiness tester designed to minimize the use of the test powder. The aerosol created from 15-mg powder samples falling down a tube were measured with an aerodynamic particle sizer (APS). Particle counts integrated throughout the pulse of aerosol created by the falling powder were used to calculate a respirable dustiness mass fraction (D, mg/kg). An amorphous silicon dioxide nanopowder produced a respirable D of 121.4 mg/kg, which was significantly higher than all other powders (p < 0.001). Many nanopowders produced D values that were not significantly different front large-particle powders, such as Arizona Road Dust and bentonite clay. In general, fibrous nanopowders and powders with primary particles >100 not are not as dusty as those containing granular nano-sized primary particles. The method used here, incorporating an APS, represents a deviation from a standard method but resulted in dustiness values comparable to other standard methods.
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