Occupational health risk assessment of construction workers caused by particulate matter exposure on construction sites

Xiaodong Yang; Qi Yu; Yan Zhang; Weichun Ma

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e20433

Occupational health risk assessment of construction workers caused by particulate matter exposure on construction sites

Heliyon. 2023 Sep 27;9(10):e20433. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e20433. eCollection 2023 Oct.

Authors

Xiaodong Yang^{1

2}, Qi Yu¹, Yan Zhang¹, Weichun Ma^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Fudan University, 200433, Shanghai, China.
² China Construction Eighth Engineering Division, 200122, Shanghai, China.
³ Shanghai Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Particle Pollution Prevention (LAP3), Shanghai, 200433, China.

Abstract

Construction particulate matter is one of the main environmental impact factors in the construction process. Due to the lack of sufficient awareness and understanding of the potential health effects of particulate matter by project managers and construction workers, the on-site working environment has not been effectively improved for a long time, and construction workers have been exposed to high particulate matter concentration conditions for physical labor for a long time. The construction site is a special operation scene, and the source and diffusion of particulate matter are a complex physical change process, and the degree of damage to the health of construction workers is closely related to the exposure dose. Thus, suitable quantitative and evaluation methods need to be adopted. The current on-site particulate matter concentration control system lacks technical and data support and cannot support the needs of on-site environmental management. In this paper, three construction sites in different stages of construction in Shanghai were selected to measure the mass concentration of open source particulate matter, and on this basis, the emission factors of particulate matter in different operating areas were calculated. At foundation stage, the emission factor of TSP, PM₁₀, PM_2.5 are 0.0214 g/m²·h, 0.0067 g/m²·h, 0.0054 g/m²·h; at main structure stage, the emission factor of TSP, PM₁₀, PM_2.5 are 0.0136 g/m²·h, 0.0053 g/m²·h, 0.0041 g/m²·h; at installation and decoration stage, the emission factor of TSP, PM₁₀, PM_2.5 are 0.0165 g/m²·h, 0.0059 g/m²·h, 0.0043 g/m²·h. Using simulation software to simulate the temporal and spatial distribution of particulate matter concentration at the site of the example project, it is found that workers engaged in pit bottom operation in the foundation stage, steel bar processing in the main structure stage, and plastering, masonry and putty workers in the installation and decoration stage are the people with the highest occupational health risk at the construction site. In this study, DALYs were used as a metric to monetize the health risks of particulate matter to workers in the field. Support scientific decision-making on particulate matter control at construction sites and improve the level of on-site occupational health management.