Mercury Concentration in Air and in Urine of Workers in A Fluorescent Lamp Manufacturing Factory

Park, Seung Hoi; Kim, Kwang Jong; Chang, Soung Hoon; Cha, Chul Whan

Abstract

In order In interpret the relationship among many variables, urinary mercury and at the same time mercury concentration in air were measured for 254 workers of a fluorescent lamp manufacturing factory. And monthly mercury consumption amounts, numbers of monthly producing fluorescent lamps, numbers of inferior lamps and numbers of breakage lamps, numbers of vacuum exhaustion pumps and frequencies of mercury infusion were also investigated from January 1988 to March in 1989. The results were as follows; 1. On the mercury concentration in air by producing line and by working site, all of them were exceed the threshold limit value (0.05mg/m(2)). 2. The highest mercury concentration in air by sampling point was found at the floor of workplace (0.334mg/m(2)) and next were at vacuum exhaustion pimp (0.183mg/m(2)), and breathing zone of workers (0.103mg/m(2)) in order. 3. The highest mean of the mercury concentration in urine by producing line was the automatic exhausting line (80.8microgram/1) and next were high speed exhausting line (72.4microgram/1), and Manual exhausting line (35.8microgram/1) in order. Distribution of workers of the mercury concentration in urine more than 200microgram/1 by working site was the highest (10%) in the vacuum exhaustion pump part and next were sealing part (6.6%), packing part (4.6%), and stem part (4.1%) in order. 4. The correlation coefficient between mercury concentration in urine and in air was the highest (0.302) and next were numbers of breakage lamps (0.223), frequencies of mercury infusion (0.223), numbers of inferior lamps (0.205) in order.