日光燈管回收作業勞工汞暴露調查

Mercury Exposure Assessment for Workers in Fluorescent Tube Recycle Plant

台灣地區每年約使用九千萬支日光燈管，數量相當的龐大，所造成的廢日光燈管數目亦相當可觀。日光燈管中含有汞及其他未能腐化的有害物質，需經適當的處理方能將之資源化及無害化。目前全台已有四家核可廠商進行廢日光燈管的回收處理工作。由於日光燈管回收為一新興作業，國內外尚無相關暴露資料可供參考。因廠內汞蒸氣及附著汞蒸氣的螢光粉塵兩者並存，如果只採集汞蒸氣恐有低估勞工汞暴露之虞，本研究利用汞蒸氣吸附管及披覆二氯化鈀（PdCl2）的纖維素酯濾紙（Mixed Cellulose Ester, MCE） ，進行作業環境測定，收集作業人員尿液做為生物偵測之用，分別利用冷蒸氣、石墨爐原子吸收光譜法進行分析；尚針對作業人員的工作習慣、衛生習慣等資料進行問卷資料的收集。研究結果發現，在定點汞蒸氣樣品中，除衍生物料出口外，濃度大多低於0.05 mg/m3 ；另外不論進料或清掃時的機台內定點汞蒸氣濃度均超出 0.1 mg/m3 。個人採樣方面，暴露濃度的高低受到進出機台的頻率、機台內部的清掃逗留時間長短，影響甚大。在汞蒸氣吸附管及披覆二氯化鈀的 MCE 濾紙所進行成對採集比較中，顯示大部份含汞粉塵樣品濃度高於汞蒸氣濃度兩倍以上，由此推論如果僅採集汞蒸氣可能低估作業人員的汞暴露。在生物偵測方面，各廠的燈管進料人員尿汞值較高，雖然現場作業人員均有佩戴呼吸防護器具，但是呼吸防護具使用正確與否，的確會影響人員的汞暴露程度。

The consumption of fluorescent lamps in Taiwan is about 90 million each year, thus much hazardous waste has been produced. To reduce environmental pollution, the recycle of fluorescent lamps has begun since 2002 in Taiwan. There are four factories authorized by Taiwan EPA to process waste lamps. Processing disposed fluorescent lamps is a newly-established industry, and there are no exposure assessment data available in Taiwan. The assessment of mercury exposure to workers was conducted by workplace monitoring, biological monitoring and questionnaire data. Among stationary samples of mercury vapor, most concentrations were below 0.05 mg/m3, except that at the exits of the treated material. Concentrations inside the processing enclosure were beyond 0.1 mg/m3, whether enclosure was in the operation or during the cleaning up. Personal sampling concentration is affected by the entry frequency to the enclosure or by processing other special work like crumbling broken lamps or distilling fluorescent powder, or cleaning up the enclosure. The dust collected by the PdCl2-coating MCE filter revealed more than twice mercury air concentration of that collected by the hydrar sorbent tubes, indicating that mercury exposure may be underestimated by using hydrar sorbent tubes alone. In biological monitoring, lamp loading workers had higher U-Hg concentration. Although all workers wore respirators, U-Hg concentration showed that they were still exposed to mercury. According to questionnaire, personal sampling concentration and U-Hg concentration, whether using respirators correctly or not is the main factor to affect workers’ mercury exposure.