Toluene and Heavy Metals in Small Automotive Refinishing Shops and Personal Protection of the Workers in Nakhon Si Thammarat, Thailand

Table 5

Levels of lead, chromium, and cadmium in ambient air and hand dust wipe samples.

Study groups	Metals	Study parameters
		Ambient levels of metal (µg/m^3)^a			Metals in hand dust wipe (mg)^b
		n	Mean ± SD	Median	n	Mean ± SD	Median
				(min-max)			(min-max)
Painting tasks	Pb	3	8.78 ± 15.21	ND	3	5.89 ± 6.22	3.24
				(ND–26.34)			(1.43–13.0)
	Cr	3	1.76 ± 2.35	0.64	3	0.99 ± 0.54	1.09
				(0.17–4.46)			(0.41–1.48)
	Cd	3	0.48 ± 0.83	ND	3	0.26 ± 0.43	0.03
				(ND–1.44)			(ND–0.76)
Nonpainting tasks	Pb	3	4.15 ± 2.40	3.16	17	17.46 ± 19.41	12.96
				(2.40–6.89)			(1.41–66.38)
	Cr	3	1.37 ± 2.10	0.20	17	14.17 ± 4.33	3.43
				(0.12–3.79)			(0.26–16.56)
	Cd	3	0.20 ± 0.16	0.14	17	0.36 ± 0.36	0.19
				(0.09–0.38)			(0.01–1.19)
Administrative tasks	Pb	3	2.15 ± 3.55	0.20	4	6.96 ± 10.71	2.40
				(ND–6.24)			(0.22–22.84)
	Cr	3	0.98 ± 1.37	0.37	4	0.41 ± 0.31	0.32
				(0.02–2.55)			(0.14–0.85)
	Cd	3	0.07 ± 0.08	0.05	4	0.56 ± 0.90	0.16
				(ND–0.16)			(ND–1.90)

^a8-hour-average. ^bPostshift.