碳黑為細小的碳微粒，廣泛用於墨水、印刷中為黑色顏料，而其最大使用量於車輛輪胎中為橡膠的補強劑，佔總使用量90%以上。由於碳黑微粒的特性，一旦散佈在作業環境空氣中，即可能經吸入途徑進入勞工體內造成健康危害。碳黑暴露的症狀包括異物感、咳嗽、流淚，動物實驗顯示碳黑可能致癌，也可能損害生殖系統。美國OSHA與ACGIH將PEL-TWA與TLV-TWA皆定為3.5mg/m3，勞委會亦定碳黑的容許濃度為3.5mg/m3。一般碳黑與橡膠的製程為密閉式，因此碳黑與橡膠製造業勞工之暴露量並不高，只有在清除維修與包裝作業時有稍高暴露，至於使用碳黑補強橡膠相關產業，一般規模並不大，廠區內碳黑污染較嚴重。本研究將做文獻探討了解作業勞工碳黑暴露現況。另外針對國內尚未建立碳黑採樣分析標準方法，試比較NIOSH 與OHSA採樣分析方法優缺點。 Carbon black is finely divided carbon composed of nonspherical particles and particle aggregates. Above 90% of carbon black was consumed in the production of rubber products, specifically in automotive tires to enhance wear stability. The remaining was employed as a black pigment in printing inks, toners, coating and plastics. The symptoms of carbon black exposure include of feeling of foreign objects, cough, irritate. In 1996, IARC classified carbon black as a possible human carcinogen (Group 2B). ACGIH and OSHA of the United States adopt the value of 3.5mg/m3 as its TLV-TWA and PEL-TWA respectively. According to the Taiwan governmental labor statistics in 1995, above 18500 workers were exposed to carbon black dusts in rubber, ink, paint, ceramics, carbon electrode, battery and carbon black manufacturing industries. But there was no exposure data reported in Taiwan. In this study, we evaluated the exposure of carbon black in industry.
