Experimental evaluation of air pollutant samplers designed in Clinica del Lavoro

Abstract

The development of the Industrial Hygiene at the Clinica del Lavoro in Milan was aimed to support occupational medicine in quantifying chemical and physical risks at workplaces. From 1968 to 1972, I was employed at the Clinica as industrial hygienist, in the evaluation of chemical and physical hazards, sampling, analytical procedures, handling of data and suggestion for engineering control measures. Sampling air contaminants in the assessment of workplace exposure and analytical procedures were prevalent topics at that time. Some devices for aerosol sampling were designed under the leadership of Nicola Zurlo, the head of the laboratory, in particular for the detection of the “respirable” dust fraction with aeolian classifier and others inertial separating devices such as impactors and centrifugal separators (cyclones). Furthermore, in collaboration with the physic Vittorio Prodi, a personal sampler based on the inertial size separation of airborne particles was proposed and applied in several workplaces. The growing interest for passive samplers led to the production of a new passive sampler with conical inserts useable with different airflow to adapt the sampling process to the level of pollution. This passive sampler could also be used for the preparation of test atmospheres of known concentration of organic solvents.