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Kim and Cha: Mercury Concentration in air and in Urine of Workers in Fluorescent Lamp Manufacturing Factories in Korea
Original Article

Korean Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine 1990; 2(2): 179-185.

Published online: 1 February 2019

DOI: https://doi.org/10.35371/kjoem.1990.2.2.179

Mercury Concentration in air and in Urine of Workers in Fluorescent Lamp Manufacturing Factories in Korea

Kwang Jong Kim, Chul Whan Cha

Department of Preventive Medicine & Institute for Environmental Health, College of Medicine, Korea University, Korea.

Copyright © 1990 The Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Medicine

Abstract

This research was conducted to investigate the correlations between urinary mercury concentration and each independent variable related with urinary mercury levels. the urinary mercury concentrations of 543 workers exposed to metal mercury vapor in a total of 11 fluorescent lamp manufacturing factories and at the same time mercury concentrations in air were measured from June 1989 to December 1989. And annually mercury consumption per workers, mercury consumption per lamp, numbers of breakage lamps, frequency of mercury infusion, numbers of droppers, and numbers of vacuum exhaustion pumps were also investigated.
The results were as follows:
1. The geometric mean of airborne mercury concentration in a total of 11 factories was 47.9 microgram/m3 (5.8~352.2 microgram/m3), six factories(54.5%) of them were exceed the threshold limit value(50.0 microgram/m3).
2. The geometric mean of urinary mercury concentration among 543 workers was 84.3 microgram/l (1.13~533.9 microgram/l), the distribution of workers by urinary mercury concentration showed that 26 workers(4.8%) were above the mercury posioning level(300 microgram/l).
3. The correlation coefficient between urinary mercury concentration and monthly numbers of breakage lamps was the highest(0.74) and next was mercury consumption per lamp (0.67), annually mercury consumption per worker(0.63) in order.

Keywords: Mercury concentration, Fluorescent lamp, Breakage lamps, Mercury consumption, Threshold limit value

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