Indoor Nanoparticles Measurements in Workplace Environment: The Case of Printing and Photocopy Center

In recent studies, laser printers and photocopy machines have been identified as important sources of indoor air pollution with fine and ultrafine particles. In this work, the indoor pollution of a printing and photocopy center in Ljubljana, Slovenia was investigated. The particle number concentrati...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Acta chimica Slovenica Vol. 63; no. 2; pp. 327 - 334
Main Authors: Grgić, Irena, Bratec, Jožica, Bešter Rogač, Marija
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Slovenia Slovenian Chemical Society 01-01-2016
Subjects:
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:In recent studies, laser printers and photocopy machines have been identified as important sources of indoor air pollution with fine and ultrafine particles. In this work, the indoor pollution of a printing and photocopy center in Ljubljana, Slovenia was investigated. The particle number concentration time series and the particle size distributions were measured continuously for a period of one month by a scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS). Our measurements clearly showed that during operating hours the total number concentration of nanoparticles (size between 15 and 750 nm) increased in both working rooms with laser printers as well as in a room with photocopy machines. In rooms with laser printers the bimodal particle size distribution was frequently observed (i.e. max. at ca. 20 or 30 nm and at ca. 100 nm), with the aged particles persisted in the room over the night and over the weekend. In the photocopy room the situation was different, again with a sharp increase in concentration of small particles (ca 20 nm) and their growth to bigger sizes, but after closing a decrease to the background concentration. The results undoubtedly proved that the fast increase in nanoparticles (size below 50 nm) was associated with processes, the intense laser printing and photocopying activity. Our study also confirmed that the ventilation of the room is a very important factor which affects the life time of aged nanoparticle in the indoor environment.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
ISSN:1318-0207
1580-3155
DOI:10.17344/acsi.2016.2269