Vacuum cleaner bags

Another potential exposure route for children is through exposure to clothing and tracked-in dirt brought in by parents who work in factories that produce 3,3 -dichlorobenzidine. A public health assessment study conducted in Michigan in 1981 (ATSDR 1996) foimd the compoimd in the homes of 9 employees. Samples collected from vacuum cleaner bags had up to 10.5 ppm and dryer lint contained up to 0.74 ppm. If these homes have not been adequately cleaned, exposure could continue. 

Electrostatic precipitators and baghouses are used to catch dust particles containing metals. Electrostatic precipitators use an electrical field to remove the particles. Baghouses use fiberglass filters, similar to vacuum cleaner bags, to catch them. The majority of theses particles, called cement kiln dust (CKD), are trapped by this equipment and returned to the kiln for incorporation into the cement clinker. Under USEPA s BIF rule. Southdown tests its cement kiln dust to judge whether it is hazardous. If the CKD does not meet the standards set under the BIF rule, it must be disposed of in accordance with USEPA s strict hazardous waste regulations. For that reason. Southdown does not accept fuels that would cause the waste CKD to fail this test. 

Lewis et al. (1999) prepared a gross house dust sample by combing dust from four vacuum cleaner bags obtained from 25 middle-class homes. The composite dust was separated into seven size fractions ranging from <4 to 500 micrometer in diameter. Ten PAHs were analyzed. All of the ten target PAHs were detected... 

At the current time, it is not clear as to whether using vacuum cleaner bags or researcher-collected samples is more suitable. Allen etal. (2008b) compared concentrations of PBDEs in vacuum cleaner dust with researcher-coUected samples from 20 homes, finding only poor... 

Colt, J.S., S.H. Zahm, D.E. Camann and P. Hartge (1998). Comparison of pesticides and other compounds in carpet dust samples collected from used vacuum cleaner bags and from a high-volume surface sampler. Environ. Health Perspec., 106, 721-724. 

House dust serves as a reservoir for pesticides in households [85]. Dust ingestion scenarios show that exposures could also exceed the diazinon chronic reference dose [115]. Support for the thesis that household dust may not only be a direct exposure path but may serve as an indicator for all indoor exposure paths can be concluded from correlations between pesticides in dust and in samples of human origin. Regarding PCP, a semivolatile pesticide, concentrations in urine of women and children corresponded well with indoor dust samples from vacuum cleaner bags [13,136]. 

Whereas the analytical part of the determination of biocides in dust displays only minor differences, samples referred to as household dust vary significantly. So far, no standard protocol for dust sampling has been reported. In the United States a High Volume Small Surface Sampler (HVS3) collecting dust samples of 2-100 g from carpets and bare floors in about 15 min has been developed (Roberts and Dickey, 1995). In Germany, predominantly dust samples from vacuum cleaner bags collected by commercial vacuum cleaners are used for evaluation of biocides in some cases samples were analyzed in passively deposited suspended particulate (PDSP) (Krause et al.. 

Carbamates (bendiocarb, carbaryl etc.) Homogenized dust from vacuum cleaner bags GC-MS (Cl) 0.05-0.1 Roinestad et al. (1993)... 

Carbamates (bendiocarb, propoxur etc.) 63-pm-fraction of dust from vacuum cleaner bags GC-MSD (SIM) 0.1-0.5 Walker et al. (1994)... 

Support for the thesis that household dust leads to contamination comes from correlations between biocides in dust and in samples of human origin. This correlation was reported for PCP in the urine of women and children and dust from vacuum cleaner bags (Krause and Englert, 1980), and in PDSP and urine respectively (MeiBner and Schweinsberg, 1996). On the other hand, no correlation was observed between PCP in household dust and blood by Liebl et al. (1996). 

First, but very few, results on the occurrence of phthalates indoors were collected by Warns.The first report on the occurrence of a flame retardant plasticizer in house dust was on TDCPP. Sellstrom and Jansson mentioned it to be present in one out of two Swedish dust samples (from vacuum cleaner bags) but gave no concentration. In the last years however, quite a few results on phthalates and organophosphate plasticizers have been published. Some of them are compiled in Tables 17.5.5 and 17.5.6. 

House dust from the German Environmental Survey, representative for Germany regarding age, gender, community size and place of residence. A subset of 200 randomly selected vacuum cleaner bags was taken, dust was sieved to <2 mm,... 

House dust from vacuum cleaner bags collected in Northern Germany (1998/1999), sieved to <63 pm,... 

Dust from the space between the two filters of double-layer vacuum cleaner bags, Germany (43% of this house dust was <63 pm, only 8% >160 pm),... 

House dust from vacuum cleaner bags collected in Hamburg (Germany, 1998-2000), sieved to <63 pm House dust, exactly one week old, sampled with commercial vacuum cleaners (Germany) only the fine dust fraction (not specified exactly) was analyzed. 

Dust from a vacuum cleaner bag can also be tested by a laboratory. This is a useful method because it provides a good sample of the dust throughout the home, without needing to test many individual surfaces. 

An analytical laboratory can analyze the dust from either a wipe or a vacuum cleaner bag using ICP (inductively coupled plasma) spectroscopy for about 25. Other methods that are used are flame or graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrophotometry (FAAS or GFAAS) and energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence (XRF). ... 

Nonwoven for several cleaning purposes outside beside hygienic application (oil absorbents, vacuum cleaner bags, etc.)... 

Industry (INDA), nonwoven filters made from synthetic fibres are the largest dollar end use nonwovens market and arguably the most profitable segment in North America, while nonwoven filtration media made from natural fibres, such as wet-laid cellulose filters, are highly price-competitive and have dominated in applications such as coolant filtration, baghouse filtration media, vacuum cleaner bags, and many HVAC applications. 

PP filtering materials are used both in dry (for dust control and removal of particles including automative filtration, cabin air filters, vacuum cleaner bags, masks) and wet media (such as filters for paintings, water, chemicals, alcoholic drinks). 

The most commonly used dust samplers are vacuum pumps with suitable filters, wet wipes, and vacuum cleaner bags. The intent is to simulate the transfer of household dust from a surface (i.e., a bare floor, windowsill, rug, toy, upholstered furniture) to the child s hand or directly to the mouth. 

Vacuum cleaner bags provide many researehers with dust samples. In general, this method has proved ineffective, largely beeause of the wide range in the efficiency of the typical vacuum cleaner bag. Furthermore, this method does not measure pg/m and thus fails to give a measure of dust loading. 

---