Sampling and analysis of jet engine exhaust aerosol

Toxicological and epidemiological studies indicate the potential for adverse health effects from occupational exposures to jet fuel. One potential source of exposure is an aerosol emitted during cold weather jet engine starts. The primary objective of this research was to develop sampling and analysis techniques to assess exposure to the aerosol. The second objective was to determine the size distribution, chemical composition, and mass concentration of the aerosol.; Field testing occurred at Eielson AFB, Alaska, and Minot AFB, North Dakota. Samples were taken from starts of F-16 and B-52 engines with small tube-and-wire electrostatic precipitators (ESPs) and other samplers. Hardware was developed so ESPs could be worn as personal samplers with little interference with worker performance. Results indicated that the aerosol contained respirable jet fuel particles at concentrations up to 75 mg/m3.; Laboratory tests were performed to determine the ESP's collection efficiency and biases to adsorption and evaporation artifacts. A chamber was developed so artifact tests could be performed at low temperatures. The ESP collected particles with greater than 98% efficiency at concentrations up to 100 mg/m 3. Adsorption artifacts were <5 μg/m3 when sampling a high concentration vapor. Evaporation artifacts were significantly lower for the ESP than for PVC membrane filters across a range of sampling times and vapor concentrations (p < 0.05). The ESP will provide more accurate exposure assessment results than filter samplers when sampling cold start particles.; The performance of the aerodynamic particle sizer 3320 was characterized by comparing size distributions obtained with the APS to those obtained with a cascade impactor. The APS was used in the field to investigate engine cold start particle size distribution and in the laboratory to determine the collection efficiency of the ESP. Counting efficiency increased from 30% for 0.5-μm particles to 100% for 0.9-μm particles, then decreased to 60% for 5-μm particles. For accuracy, any values reported by this instrument should be adjusted for counting efficiency.; The results from the field tests and laboratory experiments were used to develop sampling and analysis techniques that can be used to assess exposure to jet fuel particles from aircraft engine cold starts.*; *This dissertation is a compound document (contains both a paper copy and a CD as part of the dissertation). The CD requires the following system requirements: Microsoft Office; Microsoft Powerpoint 97; SAS version 6.12; TSI Aerosol Instrument Manager version 4.3.