Research Of Air Pollution Characteristics And Control Measures In The Workshop Environment Of A Copper Smelter Plant

Smoke dust（copper,lead, cadmium, arsenic, etc.）, SO₂and sulfuric acid mist are mainair pollutants in the workshop environment of copper smelting process,which areharmful to workers health absorbed by breath and skin exposure. Based on engineeringanalysis of a copper smelting plant, the critical control points of hazardous pollutantswas identified. The pollution characteristics of heavy metal, SO₂and sulfuric acid mistof workshop environment air in the different section was discussed combined withon-site monitoring and laboratory analysis.The information such as age, working age and post of occupational population wascollected. The biological samples such as blood and urine of workers were collected andanalyzed based on the parameters such as blood lead, blood cadmium and urine arsenic.The above data Processing and statistical analysis were done by SPSS16.0and Excel2003.The air pollutants sources in the workplace environment were discussed. Thedistribution characteristic of aerial contaminant in the workplace and the impact onworkers’health were evaluated synthetically. The results are as follows:（1） By the engineering analysis and scene investigation, major pollutants were smokedust containing heavy metals produced during smelting and SO₂in smelting workshop.The pollution level was relatively high, major pollutants were SO₂in flue gas andsulfuric acid mist in sulfuric acid workshop. The storage vat containing acid solutionwas open layout, which led to the non-organizational acid-mist areal source in electrolysisworkshop and anode mud treatment workshop. Major pollutants were smoke dust andSO₂in anode mud treatment workshop. Arsenious acid production was wet process,arsenic&its compounds and sulfuric acid mist were its major pollutants.（2） Heavy metals and SO₂were major pollutants in the workshop environment.Heavy metal pollution was mainly concentrated in the melting workshop, theconcentration ranges of copper，lead，cadmium and arsenic were0.001⁰.268mg/m³,0.030⁰.135mg/m³,0.020⁰.630mg/m³and0.001⁰.227mg/m³respectively. The meanconcentrations of which were higher than those of the anode mud treatment workshop.SO₂distribution was wide in the air, its concentration range of melting workshop were0.25¹5.51mg/m³higher than that of the external environment of workplace, alsohigher than that of other workshops. Arsine pollution was serious in electrolysisworkshop（0.030⁰.214mg/m³）. The concentration range of sulfuric acid mist inelectrolysis workshop were0.13⁰.98mg/m³, the mean concentration of which was higher than that of other workshops.（3） It is very harmful for workmen exposing to lead pollution. The overall level ofblood lead was not apparently correlated with age or working age（P＞0.05）, but theblood lead of the workers of both rotary kiln and bullion electrolysis section hadcorrelation with age（P＜0.05）, the blood lead of the workers of rotary kiln section hadcorrelation with working age（P＜0.05）, blood lead level in male group and femalegroup existed significantly differences（P＜0.01）, blood lead level of male group wassignificantly higher than that of female. The correlation between blood cadmium leveland age or working age was not significant （P＞0.05）. Urine arsenic level showed nosignificant correlation with age, working age or sex（P＞0.05）.（4） The advanced measures of environmental protection were carried out by smelterplant. Management measures played a positive role in environmental supervision.