The blasting process changed the trace metal content of all blasted particles. Blasting generally increased the relative proportion of iron in blasted materials. This iron was apparently derived from the steel plates that were being blasted. Blasting also resulted in the generation of particles with an average diameter on one micro-m. Both fresh and aged blasted particles decreased rat alveolar macrophage viability and increased enzyme release to varying degrees. Toxicity was generally compared to sand (Fig. 1). The hydroxyl radical generation from all freshly blasted particles were generally higher than from aged particles. Lipid peroxidation potential was greatest for garnet and staurolite (Fig. 2). This study demonstrates that silica sand blasting substitutes are not without biological toxic effects. Except for treated sand the toxicity of all substitutes evaluated exceeds that of silica sand on an equal surface area basis. This would indicate that abrasive substitutes may have potential adverse health effects and justifies the need for in vivo studies. The study also documents the importance of focusing on the materials collected from the ambient air, rather than pre-blast materials and materials collected from blasting areas after blasting.
Keywords
Work-environment; Pulmonary-system-disorders; Sand-blasting; Abrasive-blasting; Respirable-dust; Silica-dusts; Silicosis; In-vitro-studies; Toxic-effects; Biological-effects; Blasting-agents; In-vivo-studies;
Author Keywords: silica substitutes; abrasive blasting; in vitro toxicity; sand blasting; acute silicosis; occupational health and safety; work environment
Contact
Val Vallyathan, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, 1095 Willowdale Road, Morgantown, WV 26505
Links with this icon indicate that you are leaving the CDC website.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cannot attest to the accuracy of a non-federal website.
Linking to a non-federal website does not constitute an endorsement by CDC or any of its employees of the sponsors or the information and products presented on the website.
You will be subject to the destination website's privacy policy when you follow the link.
CDC is not responsible for Section 508 compliance (accessibility) on other federal or private website.
For more information on CDC's web notification policies, see Website Disclaimers.
CDC.gov Privacy Settings
We take your privacy seriously. You can review and change the way we collect information below.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.
Cookies used to make website functionality more relevant to you. These cookies perform functions like remembering presentation options or choices and, in some cases, delivery of web content that based on self-identified area of interests.
Cookies used to track the effectiveness of CDC public health campaigns through clickthrough data.
Cookies used to enable you to share pages and content that you find interesting on CDC.gov through third party social networking and other websites. These cookies may also be used for advertising purposes by these third parties.
Thank you for taking the time to confirm your preferences. If you need to go back and make any changes, you can always do so by going to our Privacy Policy page.