Prevention the impact of chemicals on the health of workers in fibreglass industry
¹Riga Technical University, Faculty of Engineering Economics and Management, Institute of Labour Safety and Civil Defence, Kalku street 1, LV-1658 Riga, Latvia
²Tallinn University of Technology, Faculty of Economics, Institute of Business Administration, Ehitajate 5, EE19086 Tallinn, Estonia
*Correspondence: Inese.Vilcane@rtu.lv
Abstract:
Most of the chemicals make our everyday life easier and safer. However, there are a lot of new emerging risks connected with chemicals causing damage to people’s health and environment. The results of the investigation: the chemical exposure index (EI) is between 0.16 to 25.98 (the last determined by the mould spray-up, outside of the protective masks). The air pollution index determined was between 16 to 760%. The ventilation rates for the remove of the volatiles from the workplace air are settled, the possibilities for substitution of hazardous chemicals to less hazardous are presented. When the concentration of a volatile is measured under the protective mask, which has a new filter, the tested substance concentration is lower that under the mask with an old filter, although the differences between these two were rather small. When the volatiles were measured under the protective mask, the concentrations of tested substances met the requirements.
Key words:
chemicals’ hazardousness, health risks, solvents, substitution