Exposure assessment of workplace manufacturing titanium dioxide particles.

With the widespread use of titanium dioxide (TiO) human exposure is inevitable, but the exposure data on TiO are still limited. This study adopted off-line filter-based sampling combined with real-time activity-based monitoring to measure the concentrations in a workplace manufacturing TiO (primary diameter: 194 ± 108 nm). Mass concentrations (MCs) of aerosol particles in the packaging workshop (total dust: 3.17 mg/m, nano dust: 1.22 mg/m) were much higher than those in the milling workshop (total dust: 0.79 mg/m, nano dust: 0.31 mg/m) and executive office (total dust: 0.44 mg/m, nano dust: 0.19 mg/m). However, the MCs of TiO were at a relatively low level in the packaging workshop (total TiO: 46.4 μg/m, nano TiO: 16.7 μg/m) and milling workshop (total TiO: 39.4 μg/m, nano TiO: 19.4 μg/m) by ICP-MS. The number concentration (NC), surface area concentration (SAC) of aerosol particles potentially deposited in alveolar (SAC), and tracheobronchial (SAC) regions of lungs in the packaging workshop were (1.04 ± 0.89) × 10 particles/cm, 414.49 ± 395.07, and 86.01 ± 83.18 μm/cm, respectively, which were all significantly higher than those of the milling workshop [(0.12 ± 0.40) × 10 particles/cm, 75.38 ± 45.23, and 17.60 ± 9.22 μm/cm, respectively] as well as executive office and outdoor background ( p < 0.05). Activity-related characteristics were found in both workshops, and the time-variant characteristics showed very similar trends for 3 days in the packaging workshop. Our study provides important data of TiO particles exposure in the workplace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]