Exposure risks of noise and heavy metals in dismantling lines for recovering waste televisions

Abstract Quantities of waste televisions have been generated in the world and manual dismantling was chosen to treat waste televisions. Therefore, exposure risks of pollutants in manual dismantling process should be concerned. In this paper, exposure risks of noise and heavy metals in full manual dismantling line and semi-automatic dismantling line for recovering waste televisions were studied. The highest noise levels exposed in full manual dismantling line and semi-automatic dismantling line were 92.3 dB(A) and 87.9 dB(A), which brought harm to workers. The highest concentrations of total suspended particulates, particulate matter 10, and particulate matter 2.5 exposed in the workshop of full manual dismantling line were 2425 μg/m 3 , 1624 μg/m 3 , and 1184 μg/m 3 . The corresponding values in semi-automatic dismantling line were 1221 μg/m 3 , 851 μg/m 3 , and 602 μg/m 3 . These values were ten times higher than the standard values in Ambient Air Quality Standard. The concentrations of lead in the air caused negative effect to workers, even chronic risk. The highest concentrations of zinc and lead exposed in the ground dust of the workshop reached 4868 mg/kg and 5226 mg/kg, almost ten times higher than the allowed concentration limit. Concentrations of zinc and lead exposed in surface soil of flower bed reached 683 mg/kg and 468 mg/kg. The results indicated noise and heavy metals exposures in dismantling process of waste televisions were harmful. However, Semi-automatic dismantling made a certain progress on environmental performance than full manual dismantling for treating waste televisions. Additionally, measures for controlling the exposure risks of noise and heavy metals were proposed for improving semi-automatic dismantling such as the closed and automatic transport system. This paper provided environmental information about the dismantling process for recovering waste televisions. It also supported scientific information for the government to improve the recovery process of waste televisions on cleaner production.