Use of low-cost particle counters for cotton dust exposure assessment in textile mills in low- and middle-income countries
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Published online version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: There is a lack of consensus on methods for cotton dust measurement in the textile industry, and techniques vary between countries-relying mostly on cumbersome, traditional approaches. We undertook comparisons of standard, gravimetric methods with low-cost optical particle counters for personal and area dust measurements in textile mills in Pakistan. METHODS: We included male textile workers from the weaving sections of seven cotton mills in Karachi. We used the Institute of Occupational Medicine (IOM) sampler with a Casella Apex 2 standard pump and the Purple Air (PA-II-SD) for measuring personal exposures to inhalable airborne particles (n = 31). We used the Dylos DC1700 particle counter, in addition to the two above, for area-level measurements (n = 29). RESULTS: There were no significant correlations between the IOM and PA for personal dust measurements using the original (r = -0.15, P = 0.4) or log-transformed data (r = -0.32, P = 0.07). Similarly, there were no significant correlations when comparing the IOM with either of the particle counters (PA and Dylos) for area dust measurements, using the original (r = -0.07, P = 0.7; r = 0.10, P = 0.6) or log-transformed data (r = -0.09, P = 0.6; r = 0.07, P = 0.7). CONCLUSION: Our findings show a lack of correlation between the gravimetric method and the use of particle counters in both personal and area measurements of cotton dust, precluding their use for measuring occupational exposures to airborne dust in textile mills. There continues to be a need to develop low-cost instruments to help textile industries in low- and middle-income countries to perform cotton dust exposure assessment.
Date Issued
2021-11-14
Online Publication Date
2021-12-01T12:45:48Z
Date Acceptance
2021-10-25
ISSN
2398-7308
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Journal / Book Title
Annals of Work Exposures and Health
Volume
66
Issue
4
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Occupational Hygiene Society. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/). which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
License URI
Identifier
https://academic.oup.com/annweh/article/66/4/537/6427755?login=true
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34791042
6427755
Subjects
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
cotton fibres
textile industry
exposure assessment
dust
developing countries
cotton fibres
developing countries
dust
exposure assessment
textile industry
Air Pollutants, Occupational
Developing Countries
Dust
Humans
Male
Occupational Exposure
Textiles
cotton fibres
developing countries
dust
exposure assessment
textile industry
Publication Status
Published online
Country
England
Date Publish Online
2021-11-14