[Assessment of hazards posed by metallo-organic compounds :' in industrial production and processing of polyvinyl chloride].

Background: In Poland, the production and processing of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) are a significant part of industrial output. Yearly over 400 thousand tons of pure PVC are manufactured. Workers in the PVC industry are exposed to several organic compounds, including organic compounds of tin, barium, calcium, zinc and lead that are used as PVC stabilizers. In Poland there has been no research on the hazard posed by metallo-organic compounds in the work environment.

Material And Methods: Twenty-two workstations in five industrial plants were studied. Air was sampled with a sampler that absorbed organometallic compounds. The metallo-organic compounds were determined as metals, tin, lead, barium, with atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) with electro-thermal atomization (ET-AAS). Calcium and zinc were determined with flame atomization (F-AAS).

Results: The highest concentrations of lead and tin were found in processes of preparing plastic, e.g., when backfilling surplus of weight stabilizers were weighed. High concentrations of tin were also found in processing plastic mixtures, e.g., during foil calending. The lowest concentration of metallo-organic compounds was found in extrusion molding and in injection molding in PVC finishing.

Conclusions: The concentration of metallo-organic compounds varied at the studied workstations. At some it was high--exceeding standard values, whereas at others it was low and the workers were not at risk. The emission of organic metallic compounds significantly depends on the process, the form of the stabilizers and the intensity of work. Thus it is necessary to check the levels of the concentration of those compounds at workstations.