Introduction

Date: 14 October 2010

Area of sampling: construction site

In – charge person: Nabilah Hani Bt Johari, Farahainiah binti Suhaimi, Cindy Lee Ik Sing, and Ong Houy
Ying

Period of specification of work: 8-hours

Objective

- To evaluate and monitor the airborne respirable particulate at construction site.

Problem statement

According to Mody V., Rajendra Jakhete,. & Mulloy A. (1987), we cannot avoid from produce dust
particles into the workplace atmosphere especially when working with minerals processing operations.
The excessive of production dust emissions can cause both health and industrial problems such as; health
hazards (occupational respiratory disease, irritation to eyes, ears, nose, and throat, and irritation to skin),
risk to dust explosions and fire, damage to equipment, impaired visibility, unpleasant odors, ad problems
in community relations. Workers that have high risk exposed to the harmful dusts have become the
greatest concern nowadays. Therefore, American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienist
(ACGIH) has implemented a number of standards that well know as threshold limit values (TLVs) to
evaluate the severity of health hazard in the workplace.

Literature review

A wide range of manufacturing, domestic, and industrial activities generates dust. Moreover,
construction, agriculture, and mining are among the industries that contribute the most dust into the
atmosphere. According to Martin Marietta Laboratories (1987), Respirable dust is particles that are
invisible to human eye, settle deep within the lungs, and are not ejected by breathing out, coughing, or
expulsion by mucus. According to Factories and Machinery Act 1967 (2008), the permissible exposure
limits for respirable dust is 5Mg/M ³. Respirable dusts also are dust particles with AED less than 7µ m
(according to British Medical Research Council) or less than 10 µ m (according to the American
Conference of Industrial Hygienests)A long-term exposure to respirable dusts can cause respiratory
disease pneumoconiosis. Pneumoconiosis is a general name for other dust-related lung diseases such as
silicosis, black lung, and asbestosis.
Process description of workplace

At the construction site most of the tasks that are been done there are piling, excavation, semen mixture,
concrete work, working at height, welding, and etc.

Methodology

The instruments that used for the respirable dust monitoring are air sampling pump, cassettes, flexible
hose, PVC filter with cellulose support pad, soap solution, calibration jar, nylon cyclone, and electronic
frictionless bubble-tube calibrator.

The procedure for air sampling can be divided into 3 stages, which are preparation stage, taking samples
stage, and analyse sample stage.

i. Preparation stage

- Preliminary inspection is carried out to identify which area are the workers expose to high-risk
respirable dust to be sampled and the high-risk workers for exposure personal monitoring.

- Look up air sampling method to determine the instruments to be used, appropriate sampling
media, the pump flow rate, the number of samples to be prepared, the number of blanks, and the
sample handling.

- Discharging and charging the pump batteries to make sure the pump can be operate for 8-hours
for the monitoring.

- Calibrate the pump to 1.70 flow rate (l/min).

- Preparation of sampling media by gets the initial weight of the PVC filter. Prepared 4 PVC filter
for 3 samples and 1 blank cassettes. Label the cassettes.

ii. Taking samples stage

- Assemble the sampling instruments, which are the cassettes, flexible hose and air sampling pump.

- Put the air sampling pump at the selected worker.

- Brief the worker on the purpose of the monitoring and the do’s and don’ts while the monitoring is
running

- Start pump and record the time.

 - During the monitoring, in couples of hour the condition of the sampling device and sample is
been check to make sure nothing goes wrong.

- The samples are been change at 12.00 o’clock and 2.00 pm.

- At the end of sampling period, after 8-hours, all the samples are been collected and pecked
properly so there are no dislodge particulate or escape of contaminant during handling the
cassettes.

- Send the samples back to laboratory for analysis.

iii. Analyse sample stage

- The PVC filters for the three samples are been weighted to get the final weight after the
monitoring. Record the post-weight.

- Weight the blank also. Record the post-weight.

The type of monitoring is personal sampling, which the air sampling pump is attached to the selected
worker with the sampling head within the breathing zone. The breathing zone is area from face and chest,
which it is assumed that within that area the concentration of the contaminant is same as the actual air
enters the nose. The worker is been selected because of the worker expose to high risk respirable dust,
which is the worker near to the source that produce respirable dust contaminant. The monitoring is
running for 8-hours. This is because we do full period consecutive samples measurement. It is because it
yields the narrowest confidence limits on the exposure estimate. The worker start to work at 7.00 am until
7.00 pm. There are no shift in this construction site.

Results

Sample 1 2 3 Blank

Initial weight (g) 0.0104 0.0105 0.0105 0.0105

Post-weight (g) 0.0105 0.0110 0.0108 0.0108

Table I : The initial weight (g) and post-weight (g) of the three samples and blank.

Name of the sample: Jo

Work area: All around the construction site

Job description: General work

Sampling duration: 8-hours

Discussion

From the table I above, we can see that for the first sample (from 9.00 am until 12.00 pm) there are
slightly change from the initial weight 0.0104 g to 0.0105 g. the change only 0.0001 g. This happen
because, the soils are still wet due to rain at night therefore, the rains cover the entire surface of the
construction site. The size of water droplet from rain became optimal size to ensure maximum removal of
airborne respirable dust. Therefore, there is less airborne contaminant or dust at the breathing zone since
the dust fall below worker breathing zone.

For the second sample (from 12.00 pm until 2.00 pm), there are huge difference between initial weight
and post-weight compare to the first sample, which is 0.0005 g. This is because, at that time the
temperature at the construction site is increase and getting hot. So the train that cause the dust fall down
below breathing zone will evaporate and the dust will become airborne again. Besides that, the amount of
dust also increases because there are more tasks that produce dust on that time.

On the other hand, the third sample (from 2.00 pm until 5.00 pm) there is 0.0003 g of difference between
initial weight and post-weight. This is because, the worker almost ends his shift, and therefore, the worker
exposure towards dust is decrease.

Recommendation

The respirable dust is impossible to eliminate in the construction site because there are always involve
with task that will produce dust such as silica and semen. To minimize or control the exposure of airborne
respirable dust towards the workers at the construction site by implement proper precautions and use the
right equipment. For example, the blades that are use to cut concrete and other building material should
be attached with water supply to make the dust that produce from cutting the concrete become heavy and
fall to below breathing zone. Besides that, when drilling into rock the same method should be introduce to
weight down the dust and prevent from becoming airborne.

Besides that, cleaning after the work is done also important. The water that is use to weight down the
dust will evaporate and the dust will become airborne again. Therefore, cleaning up the dust is necessary
to keep the construction site free from high level of respirable dust.

According to Factories and Machinery Act 1967 (2008), the workers at the construction site should be
provide respiratory protective equipment such as dust mask. This is because want to avoid inhaling the
dust at construction site. The respiratory protective equipment should be use when the employees in a
area or doing prescribed work and after the employee has been diagnosed to suffer from an early stage of
pneumoconiosis.

Conclusion

The concentration of respirable particulate at the construction site is 0.3529 mg/m³. Therefore, it comply
to Factories and Machinery Act 1967 because it not exceed 5 mg/m³ of respirable dust.

References

Department of Occupational Safety and Health. (2000). Guidelines on Monitoring of Airborne

Contaminant for Chemicals Hazardous to Health (ISBN : 983-2014-19-0). Malaysia. Ministry of
Human Resources.

Factories and Machinery Act (mineral dust) Regulations 1989.

Martin Marietta Laboratories (1987). Dust Control Handbook for Minerals Processing (JO235005) South
Rolling Road, Baltimore: Mody V., Rajendra Jakhete,. & Mulloy A..

Appendices

APPENDIX 1

- High flow air sampling pump

- 37 mm, 5.0 µm pore size PVC filter with cellulose support pad in a two-stage plastic cassette
positioned within a nylon cyclone assembly.

- Flexible hose

- Calibration jar

- Frictionless bubble-tube calibrator

- Soap solution
APPENDIX 2

Calculation the concentration of respirable particulate, C (mg/m³), in air volume sampled V (L):

C= (W2 – W1) – (B2 – B1) × 10³

Where: W1 = tare weight of filter before sampling (mg)

W2 = post-sampling weight of sample-containing filter (mg)

B1 = mean tare weight of blank filters (mg)

B2 = mean post-sampling weight of blank filters (mg)

V = volume as sampled at the nominal flow rate

C = [(0.0105g + 0.0110g + 0.0108g) – (0.0104g + 0.0105g + 0.0105g)] – (0.0108-0.0105) X 10³

1.7 L/min

= 0.3529 mg/m³