Nanoparticles-containing spray can aerosol: characterization, exposure assessment, and generator design

This is the first report demonstrating that a commercially available household consumer product produces nanoparticles in a respirable range. This report describes a method developed to characterize nanoparticles that were produced under typical exposure conditions when using a consumer spray product. A well-controlled indoor environment was simulated for conducting spray applications approximating a human exposure scenario. Results indicated that, while aerosol droplets were large with a count median diameter of 22 µm during spraying, the final aerosol contained primarily solid TiO2 particles with a diameter of 75 nm. This size reduction was due to the surface deposition of the droplets and the rapid evaporation of the aerosol propellant. In the breathing zone, the aerosol, containing primarily individual particles (>90%), had a mass concentration of 3.4 mg/m3, or 1.6 × 105 particles/cm3, with a nanoparticle fraction limited to 170 µg/m3, or 1.2 × 105 particles/cm3. The results were used to estimate the ...