日光燈工廠勞工汞蒸氣暴露評估技術探討

Study on Mercury Vapor Exposure Assessment Techniques for Workers in the Fluorescence Lamp Factories

勞工汞蒸氣暴露作業環境測定，可以利用主動式或者被動式採樣進行，但是目前尚缺乏有力的證據顯示兩種採樣技術結果的一致性。以上兩者在作業現場比較的報告尤其難以獲得，故為確認不同暴露評估技術間的一致性，確定評估技術的品質及了解勞工汞蒸氣暴露現況，需進一步進行研究與探討。本研究使用成對 t 檢定(paired t-test)統計分析，比較主動式與被動式採樣樣品群間之異同；並以線性回歸比較個別樣品間之相關性。同時採集勞工尿液檢體，進行汞物種分析以了解尿中總汞及無機汞含量；生物偵測結果再與環境測定結果進行線性相關分析比較。對75 組主動式採樣與被動式採樣樣品，所進行的成對t 檢定統計分析得0.534 t-值及0.595 p-值；而線性回歸的線性相關係數（ｒ）為 0.694。在 19 組生物偵測結果與主動式採樣樣品及被動式採樣樣品線性回歸比較中，線性相關係數分別為0.822及0.801。本研究結果顯示，在 0.001 至 0.07mg/m3 汞蒸氣濃度範圍中，不同的監測技術間在統計上無顯著的差異。因此建議日光燈製造工廠作業勞工汞蒸氣暴露之評估，基於各種技術之特性，在低濃度作業環境中可以利用主動式採樣。在汞蒸氣濃度大於 1/10PEL(0.005mg/m3)時，而考慮勞工方便作業，則可考慮使用被動式採樣進行作業環境測定。若將汞蒸氣皮膚吸收列入考慮，而以總暴露量為評估時，宜採用勞工尿中無機汞生物偵測方式進行。

Environmental monitoring of mercury vapor at work place can be conducted not only by active sampling but also by passive sampling method. However, there is a lack of sufficient evidence indicating the consistency of results from these assessment techniques. Due to the fact that very few working environment in-situ comparisons are reported, further studies should be conducted to verify the correlation among different assessment techniques to ensure the quality of these techniques and to understand workers’ exposure to hazards. Comparisons of results from active and passvive sampling were conducted by means of paired-t test and linear regression. In addition, speciation of mercury from workers’ urine for whole mercury and inorganic content were analyzed. These results from biological monitoring were compared to those from environmental monitoring techniques. The paired-t test of 75-pair samples between active and passive sampling methods had 0.534 of tvalue and 0.595 of p-value, whereas the coefficients of correlation was 0.694. The coefficients of correlation for comparisons of 19-pair samples in both biological monitoring vs. active sampling and biological monitoring vs. passive sampling were 0.822 and 0.801, respectively. These results indicated fairly good agreement among different monitoring techniques. Application of active sampling technique is suggested at low level of mercury vapor while passive sampling technique is preferred if mercury vapor exceeds 1/10PEL level (0.005mg/m3) and the comfort of workers is taken into consideration. Mercury speciation of urine is the preferred method if dermal absorption is regarded as an important factor..