Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene (한국산업보건학회지)
- Volume 15 Issue 1
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- Pages.27-35
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- 2005
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- 2384-132X(pISSN)
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- 2289-0564(eISSN)
A Study on Workers' Exposure to Organic Solvents in Petroleum Refinery
원유정제업 작업자들의 유기용제에 대한 노출 평가
- Choi, Sang Jun (Wonjun Institute for Occupational and Environmenal Health) ;
- Paik, Nam Won (Graduate School of Public Health, Seoul National University) ;
- Kim, Jin Kyoung (Graduate School of Public Health, Seoul National University) ;
- Choi, Yeon Ki (National Institute of Environmental Research) ;
- Jung, Hyun Hee (Samsung Electronics Co., LTD) ;
- Heo, Sung-Min (POSCO Gwangyang Works)
- 최상준 (원진 노동환경건강연구소) ;
- 백남원 (서울대학교 보건대학원) ;
- 김진경 (서울대학교 보건대학원) ;
- 최연기 (국립환경연구원) ;
- 정현희 (삼성전자) ;
- 허성민 (포스코 광양제철소)
- Received : 2004.10.30
- Accepted : 2005.03.04
- Published : 2005.03.30
Abstract
This study was carried out to evaluate the characteristics of petroleum refinery workers' exposure to organic solvents. Exposure assessment was conducted by full shift-based long term personal sampling(TWA-P) and task-based short term personal sampling(STEL-P) strategy. Major organic solvents that workers can be exposed are various, varying from C3~C12, and this study focused on 11 kinds including benzene, considering toxicity and concentration level. In comparison with two sampling results, STEL-P shows a significant(p<0.001) excess of exposure level rather than TWA-P. As the potential risk index for benzene is calculated as 16, benzene should be set the highest priority for control in petroleum refinery industry. The tasks with the highest benzene exposure level were de-watering(AM;99.8 ppm), draining(AM;19.6ppm), sampling(AM;16.2ppm), and manual gauging(AM;15.02ppm). Petroleum refinery workers' exposure pattern to organic solvents differs by tasks performed, and some task has a high risk of temporary extreme exposure. Therefore, traditional 8-hour TWA sampling strategy have possibility of underestimation of exposure level of workers in petroleum refinery.