title: Wood-dust exposure during wood-working processes.
abstract: Personal and ambient full shift concentrations of inhalable wood dust were measured at different wood-working processes in two joineries and a furniture factory in The Netherlands. The current occupational exposure limit for wood dust is still 5 mg m-3 total dust, but the Dutch Expert Committee for Occupational Standards has recently recommended a health-based limit of 0.2 mg m-3 (total wood dust). The main purpose of the present study was to characterize current wood-dust exposures during different wood-working activities in order to determine whether compliance with the proposed limit was feasible. The wood-dust exposures in the joineries were usually much lower than 5 mg m-3, but in the furniture factory the present limit was regularly exceeded. Sanding, especially hand sanding, nearly always resulted in exposures above 5 mg m-3. Almost all personal exposures were higher than the proposed health-based limit of 0.2 mg m-3 and therefore can be considered to generate a health risk to the workers. The measurements performed may help in setting priorities and will serve as a basis for the development of a control strategy to reduce the average exposure.
authors.affiliation: Department of Air Quality, Wageningen Agricultural University, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Scheeper
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kromhout
authors.forename: J S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Boleij
mesh_terms: D004391:Dust / Q000032:analysis*; D006801:Humans; D009426:Netherlands; D016273:Occupational Exposure / Q000032:analysis*; D014934:Wood
chemical_list: D004391:Dust