Carbon disulfide exposure assessment in a Chinese viscose filament plant

Carbon disulfide is a well-known occupational hazard in the viscose industr y, and studies have shown considerable health effects when workers are expo sed to high concentrations of this reagent. At exposure levels below the TL V-TWA(31 mg/m(3)), findings remain contradictory, probably due to deficient exposure data. The present study tries to identify the occupational hazard s and thoroughly assess the exposure levels in a Chinese viscose rayon plan t. Methods: An industrial hygienic field survey and a sampling campaign were c arried out, including multi-gas monitoring, on-line measurements, and stati onary assessment in the spinning hall as well as personal exposure sampling for spinners (by charcoal tube absorbing and GC-FPD analysis). All data wa s introduced into Foxpro database, and analyzed by Epi info (6.04) and SPSS , Results: On-line measurement showed that the geometric mean (GM) of carbon disulfide exposure amounted to 12.73 mg/m(3) in 'exposure' and 0.08 mg/m(3) in 'non-exposure' worksites. These concentrations in the air were related to the subject's activities showing the highest levels when they had to ope n the shield windows of the spinning machines. Stationary exposure measurem ents of carbon disulfide in the spinning hall amounted to 23.29 mg/m(3) GM (range 5.8-97.94 mg/m(3)). Personal exposure of spinners was about 17.3 mg/ m(3) GM. Comparing these methods, the personal exposure sampling could exac tly express the exposure levels of the worker's contacting situation. The o n-line measurement by multi-gas monitor might also be recommended to the fa ctory as it has its own advantages of rapid and independent assessment, but it under-estimates the exposure level.