Used Ventilation Filters: What Is That Smell?

Details

• Personal Author:
  Berardinelli, Stephen P. Jr. ; Calvert C ; Coffey, Christopher C. ; Jensen P ; Jones, William G. ; Lawrence R ; Martin, Stephen B. Jr.
• Description:
  A strong odor from used ventilation filters was noticed during annual routine maintenance on the air-handling units at a research facility. Maintenance workers expressed concern of a potential health hazard resulting from direct contact with these filters. This concern prompted a thorough examination of the physical and chemical nature of the filters and collected particulate matter. An examination by light microscopy indicated a predominance of opaque small particles. Electron microscopy confirmed the small size of the captured particles, with the majority being in the submicrometer range. High magnification showed many of the particles to be agglomerations of smaller, roughly spherical subunits, consistent with combustion aerosol. Representative headspace samples of filter sections were analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GC-MS). Toluene, xylene, diethyl-benzenes, and 2-methyl furan were found on all samples. A sub-set of sampled yielded octanal, nonanal, undecane, hexanol, heptanal, dimethyl-benzene and benzaldehyde. Toluene was also confirmed in air samples collected upstream and downstream of the filter bank. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Aerosols Environmental Monitoring Hazardous Substances Occupational Health Particulate Matter Safety Ventilation
• Keywords:
  Air-samples Filters Hard-metals Health-hazards Particulates Sampling Ventilation-systems Workers
• Publisher:
  American Industrial Hygiene Association
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Abstract or Summary
• Place as Subject:
  California ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 9 ; West Virginia
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DRDS - Division of Respiratory Disease Studies ; OD - Office of the Director
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  24
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20022363
• Citation:
  American Industrial Hygiene Conference and Exposition, June 1-6, 2002, San Diego, California. Fairfax, VA: American Industrial Hygiene Association, 2002 Jun; :24
• CAS Registry Number:
  Diethylbenzene (CAS RN 25340-17-4) ; Toluene (CAS RN 108-88-3) ; Xylene (CAS RN 1330-20-7)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2002
• NORA Priority Area:
  Research Tools and Approaches: Control Technology and Personal Protective Equipment
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Source Full Name:
  American Industrial Hygiene Conference and Exposition, June 1-6, 2002, San Diego, California
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:07c8bc7204e5f436754f28e8ccf3f32274767c9761a699bc18db3902bac05cf9c88084f4e367af7f7afd644add1041bd3bfcd12e80cda9d2a2dc4f5ec993d783
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/199167/cdc_199167_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 501.10 KB ]