Table 5.
Metal concentrations (µg/m3) in the inhalable fraction samples of recycling workers in five German e-waste recycling sheltered workshops collected with personal and stationary sampling systems
| Metal [µg/m3] | Recycling workers Personal sampling |
Recycling workers Stationary sampling |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| n | Median (GM) Range |
n | Median (GM) Range |
|
| Aluminium | 40 |
6.85 (8.23) 2.0–85.0 |
21 |
3.70 (3.70) 0.89–15.0 |
| Antimony | 40 |
0.075 (0.091) 0.051–0.34 |
21 |
0.062 (0.067) 0.047–0.17 |
| Arsenic | 40 |
0.033 (0.033) 0.021–0.069 |
21 |
0.031 (0.031) 0.018–0.13 |
| Beryllium | NA | 14 |
0.0015 (0.0015) 0.0013–0.0017 |
|
| Cadmium | 40 |
0.013 (0.017) 0.005–0.23 |
21 |
0.008 (0.009) 0.006–0.044 |
| Chromium | 40 |
0.16 (0.20) 0.081–1.4 |
21 |
0.12 (0.12) 0.063–0.64 |
| Cobalt | 40 |
0.035 (0.041) 0.018–0.31 |
21 |
0.033 (0.035) 0.015–0.18 |
| Nickel | 40 |
0.23 (0.27) 0.058–1.9 |
21 |
0.099 (0.11) 0.052–0.69 |
| Mercury | 31 |
0.44 (0.47) 0.14–3.3 |
22 |
0.31 (0.46) 0.16–6.6 |
During calculation of the statistical location parameters median and geometric mean (GM), samples below the limit of quantification (LOQ) were assigned a numerical value equal to the LOQ. Refer to Table 1 for the LOQs
NA not available