Segregation of respirable dust for chemical and toxicological analyses

A Novel Calibration Method for the Quantification of Respirable Particles in Mining Scenarios Using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy

“…demanded facilitating on-the-spot intervention strategies. 1,5,[8][9][10] Most studies related to this field specifically target the quantification of respirable crystalline silica (RCS), i.e., alpha quartz, which is well known to cause lung diseases such as silicosis while also being suspected to be a lung carcinogen. [11][12][13] This hazardous effect relating the exposure of mining workers to dust containing RCS was readily confirmed during past studies, 4,[14][15][16] and resulted in a permissible exposure limit (PEL) of 0.1 mg/m 3 respirable dust present in metal/non-metal mines, as prescribed by the U.S.…”

“…Specific confounders arising from the filters themselves were addressed, and an improved strategy was established for DoF filter loading to generate controlled calibration models, which can be applied to real-world samples. Additionally, an advanced method for size selection evolving the methodology developed by Barone et al 8 was used to perfectly match the calibration samples to the respirable, and thus most hazardous, size regime. This allows tailoring the calibration model to the matrix, particle size, and composition of analytes in a specific deposit, and thus augments the sector/ mine-specific approach established by Cauda et al 1 using a multivariate regression approach, which effectively addresses the issue of matrix-based analytical confounders.…”