How improvements in monitoring and safety practices lowered airborne formaldehyde concentrations at an Italian university hospital: a summary of 20 years of experience
, , , , and | Oct 06, 2020
About this article
Article Category: Original article
Published Online: Oct 06, 2020
Page range: 178 - 189
Received: Mar 01, 2020
Accepted: Aug 01, 2020
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/aiht-2020-71-3406
Keywords
© 2019 Stefano Dugheri et al., published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4
Calibration data for the analytical method and direct readings in lab setting
| Expected FA concentrations of gaseous standards (atmospheres) | Active-sampling DNPH cartridge | Direct-reading GASERA monitor |
|---|---|---|
| (μg/m3) | Mean ± SD (μg/m3) | Mean ± SD (μg/m3) |
| 20 | 24±7 | 17±8 |
| 40 | 44±8 | 63±6 |
| 80 | 83±7 | 98±12 |
| 160 | 166±15 | 144±23 |
| 320 | 323±13 | 337±25 |
| Simple linear regression estimation y=α+βx | ||
| R2 | 0.992 | 0.964 |
| β | 0.993 | 0.960 |
| (SE) | (0.017) | (0.038) |
| α | -3.151 | -2.675 |
| (SE) | (3.008) | (6.600) |
| p value of F test | ||
| H0: α=0 | 0.149 | 0.131 |
| β=1 | ||
| Method parameters | ||
| LOD (μg/m3) | 1 | - |
| LOQ (μg/m3) | 3 | 1* |
| Within session accuracy (%) | 4 | 6 |
| Within session repeatability (%) | 7 | 9 |
| Inter session repeatability (%) | 8 | 9 |
2019 FA monitoring campaign overall measurements for all three work units (operating theatres, Pathology Lab gross room, and Pathology Lab specimen reception). The Wilcoxon rank-sum test was using whole data from the three work units. Probability (p) and z score values are reported for each comparison of methods. There is no evidence to reject the null hypothesis (p<0.05) for any of the tests
| 2019 FA monitoring campaign overall measurements for operating theatres and Pathology Lab specimen reception and gross room (μg/m3) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Active-sampling | Active-sampling | Active-sampling | Active-sampling | Direct-reading | Direct-reading | |
| DNPH cartridge | DNPH cartridge | DNPH cartridge | DNPH cartridge | NEMO Monitor | GASERA Monitor | |
| GilAir Plus | GilAir Plus | GasCheck | GasCheck | |||
| Personal sampling | Ergonomic armchair | Area sampling | ||||
| Short-term | TWA | Short-term | TWA | TWA | TWA | |
| 103 | 76 | 103 | 76 | 76 | 76 | |
| 33 | 18 | 29 | 17 | 18 | 14 | |
| 27 | 14 | 27 | 13 | 14 | 11 | |
| 5–192 | 6–61 | 5–192 | 5–65 | 7–55 | 5–47 | |
| Wilcoxon rank-sum test | ||||||
| Method comparison | p value ( |
|||||
| Active DNPH-cartridge personal short-term sampling |
0.595 |
|||||
| Active DNPH-cartridge personal TWA sampling |
0.252 |
|||||
| Active DNPH-cartridge personal sampling |
0.816 |
|||||
| Active DNPH-cartridge GasCheck Basic automatic collector sampling |
0.195 |
|||||
Trends in FA concentrations (μg/m3) at the Careggi Hospital operating theatres and pathology lab over three periods that saw improvements in handling and measuring FA exposure. Decreases are relative to the previous time interval
| Time interval | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1999–2007 | 2008–2015 | 2016–2019 | |
| Short-term exposure (15 min) | |||
| Median range (μg/m3) (no. of monitoring campaigns) | 158–200 ( |
61–108 ( |
20–28 ( |
| Mean decrease (%) | 182 (-) | 99 (46) | 24 (76) |
| Short-term exposure (15 min) | |||
| Median range (μg/m3) (no. of monitoring campaigns) | 269–613 ( |
71–161 ( |
15–44 ( |
| Mean decrease (%) | 410 (-) | 121 (71) | 29 (76) |
| TWA | |||
| Median range (μg/m3) (no. of FA campaigns) | 706–875 ( |
115–180 ( |
16–37 ( |
| Mean decrease (%) | 301 (-) | 145 (52) | 32 (78) |
| Short-term exposure (15 min) | |||
| Median range (μg/m3) (no. of monitoring campaigns) | 180–300 ( |
85–90 ( |
15–37 ( |
| Mean decrease (%) | 211 (-) | 89 (58) | 28 (69) |
| TWA | |||
| Median range (μg/m3) (no. of monitoring campaigns) | 127–200 ( |
44–73 ( |
10–33 ( |
| Mean decrease (%) | 160 (-) | 59 (63) | 25 (58) |