PIXE analysis of work environment aerosols

In labor environment, the quantity of chemical substances in the air is more, and their kinds are more diversified than in general home environment. It has been well known that some substances contained in the aerosol in labor environment (floating dust in the atmosphere) such as asbestos and hexavalent chromium have the possibility of causing serious injuries such as cancer of respiratory organ. In order to identify the harmful substances to which laborers are exposed and to take the measures for removing them, it is necessary to investigate in detail into many factors related to the effect of aerosol on human bodies, such as the composition of elements, chemical condition, concentration, the particle size of dust and temporal and spatial distributions. For the purpose, sampling and analysis must be carried out so that information can be extracted as much as possible from a minute amount of sample. The particle induced x-ray emission (PIXE) analysis is very effective for this application. In this paper, the development of a PIXE analysis system and the knowledge obtained by the sampling and measurement of aerosol in indoor labor environment are reported. The labor environment selected is that of the workshop of Department of Liberal Arts, University of Tokyo. Sampling, the experimental apparatus, the method of data analysis and the results of analysis are described. (Kako, I.)