Air showers: Can they help prevent dust exposure of workers?

Air showers are used by workers to remove dust from their clothes after works in dusty environments, before they enter clean areas, like the changing room, the canteen, etc. Air showers include nozzles which produce air jets aiming at blowing dust from clothes, and a ventilation system generating a downdraft in the cabin to minimize the concentration of dust near the respiratory tract. The influence of the main operating parameters has been studied to ensure that workers do not inhale dust while air showers blow as much dust off their clothes as possible. Efficiency of air showers is determined by gravimetric analysis. Dust concentration near the respiratory tract of the worker is measured in real-time by an optic counter near a full-size manikin. Results show that the aeraulic characteristics of the air shower are the most important parameters to optimize the efficiency of air showers and to limit drastically the quantity of dust near the respiratory tract.