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Equipment efficiency

Are personal and collective protections effective?

As part of the European projects SCAFFOLD and NANOSAFE 2, the NanoSafety team of CEA Grenoble evaluated the effectiveness of existing personal and collective protection facing an exposure to nanoparticles (jackets, gloves, filters). Studies realized by the "Ecole de technologie supérieure of Montreal" concerned the effects of nanoparticles on gloves and protective clothing.

The European project SCAFFFOLD

The general purposes of the SCAFFOLD project is to estimate, monitor and manage manufactured nanomaterial risks in the construction industry.

The team NanoSafety of the DTNM-DRT-CEA has studied the efficiency of individual protection means (jackets, gloves,…) used by the workers on the construction sites.

The diffusion cell is composed of two parts, upstream and downstream, separated by a support.

A liquid suspension containing nanoparticles is aerosolized via a Tsi atomizer. Thanks to a CPC and a FMPS, the nanoparticles are counted and a granulometry is realized. The aerosol is then introduced in the diffusion cell in the upstream part with a controlled flow of 1 mL/min. The aerosol diffuses across the support and ended up in the downstream part where a granulometry and a counting of the nanoparticles are performed. During the diffusion process, the nanoparticle concentration is kept constant.

Image of the diffusion cell and drawing of the device [D. Boutry et al., Scaffold D.4.6 (2014)].