Journal of occupational and environmental hygiene
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J Occup Environ Hyg · Aug 2011
Personal PM(2.5) exposure among wildland firefighters working at prescribed forest burns in Southeastern United States.
This study investigated occupational exposure to wood and vegetative smoke in a group of 28 forest firefighters at prescribed forest burns in a southeastern U. S. forest during the winters of 2003-2005. During burn activities, 203 individual person-day PM(2.5) and 149 individual person-day CO samples were collected; during non-burn activities, 37 person-day PM(2.5) samples were collected as controls. ⋯ Overall occupational exposures to particulate matter were low, but results indicate that exposure could exceed the ACGIH®-recommended threshold limit value of 3 mg/m(3) for respirable particulate matter in a few extreme situations. Self-assessed exposure levels agreed with measured concentrations of PM(2.5). Correlation analysis shows that either PM(2.5) or CO could be used as a surrogate measure of exposure to woodsmoke at prescribed burns.