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Identification of Chinese Drywall and Exposure to Particulate Matter and Metals During Cutting and Installation of Drywall

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University of New Orleans ScholarWorks@UNO University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations Dissertations and Theses 5-20-2011 Preliminary Assessment: Identification of Chinese Drywall and Exposure to Particulate Matter and Metals during Cutting and Installation of Drywall Vandana Karap University of New Orleans Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td Recommended Citation Karap, Vandana, "Preliminary Assessment: Identification of Chinese Drywall and Exposure to Particulate Matter and Metals during Cutting and Installation of Drywall" (2011). University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations. 1321. https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/1321 This Thesis is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by ScholarWorks@UNO with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Thesis in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights- holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/or on the work itself. This Thesis has been accepted for inclusion in University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UNO. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Preliminary Assessment: Identification of Chinese Drywall and Exposure to Particulate Matter and Metals during Cutting and Installation of Drywall A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the University of New Orleans in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Environmental Engineering by Vandana Karap B.E Osmania University, 2007 May, 2011 Dedication To my late mother who taught me to be independent and is the reason for what I am today. To my father who always had a complete trust and faith in me. To my sisters for their immense support and belief in my dreams, and to my best friends Soujanya and Naveen for being my strength and just being there for me. “Hesitating to act because the whole vision might not be achieved, or because others do not yet share it, is an attitude that only hinders progress” – Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi ii Acknowledgements Thanks to God for being with me and giving me strength to achieve my goals and fulfill my dreams. I am grateful to Dr. Bhaskar Kura, Dr. Enrique La Motta, and Dr. Patricia Williams for serving on my Graduate Examining Committee. I owe my gratitude to Dr. Kura for his support, guidance, encouragement, and his patience throughout my master’s program, for pushing me towards achieving my goal, for his immense motivation on this project, and for helping me understand new techniques and concepts in the past three years. Dr. La Motta for sharing his knowledge, teaching, and explaining subjects that were new to me. Dr. Williams for her valuable assistance and suggestions on this project. I would like to acknowledge Mr. Earl Carr and Carr Public Adjusters for providing the samples for this project when there was no source for samples. Mr. Stephen Crawford and Ms. Amy Gagnon for providing the opportunity to study their homes. I take this opportunity to thank my friends Aashay, Anirudh, Appu, Gomzy, Jaipal, Kaushik, Mon, Murali, Nag Bhai, Naveen, Pinki, and Vamshi for their constant support and encouragement in most difficult and good times during the past three years. For being there for me at all times. My sincere thanks to my mother, my father, my sisters, Kirthi and Sunny for their backing and motivation through all these years of my life. iii Table of Contents List of Tables .......................................................................................................................v List of Figures .................................................................................................................... vi Abstract ............................................................................................................................. vii Introduction .........................................................................................................................1 Objectives ............................................................................................................................3 General Objective ................................................................................................3 Specific Objectives ..............................................................................................3 1: Literature Review ............................................................................................................4 1.1: Background ...................................................................................................4 1.2: Past Investigations ........................................................................................5 1.3: Recent Investigations ....................................................................................6 1.4: Exposure to dust produced during cutting and installation of drywall as particulate matter ................................................................................................................8 1.5: Particulate Matter (PM) ..............................................................................10 1.6: Heavy Metals ............................................................................................ 11 2: Instruments used ............................................................................................................13 2.1: Jerome 631-X H2S Analyzer ......................................................................13 Features ..............................................................................................................................13 Applications .......................................................................................................................13 Operation Principle ............................................................................................................14 Operation with zero filter ...................................................................................................15 2.2: Innov-X XRF Analyzer ..............................................................................15 Principle of operation of XRF Analyzer ............................................................................16 Description .........................................................................................................................16 2.3: Eight-Staged Non Viable Anderson Cascade Impactor .............................17 Features ..............................................................................................................................18 Applications .......................................................................................................................18 Specifications .....................................................................................................................18 2.4: Skil 10” Table Cutting Saw ........................................................................19 3: Methodology .................................................................................................................21 3.1: Identification of Chinese Drywalls using metal analysis.............................21 3.1.1: Prescreen Analysis ......................................................................21 3.1.2: In Situ H2S Monitoring ..............................................................24 3.1.3: Collection of samples and XRF analysis of samples ..................24 3.1.3.1: XRF analysis of samples................................................25 3.2: Preliminary assessment of exposure to particulates and heavy metals during cutting and installation of drywall………………………………………….25 iv 3.2.1: Collection of PM using an eight-stage cascade impactor ........25 3.2.2: X-ray fluorescence metal analysis of filters after sampling ....26 3.2.3: Calculation of work space concentration and mass fraction of metals and PM .................................................................................................................27 4: Results ............................................................................................................................29 4.1: Identification of Chinese Drywall Results (First Part of the Study) ............29 4.2: Preliminary assessment of exposure to particulates and heavy metals during cutting and installation of drywall results (Second part of the study) ...................34 5: Discussions ....................................................................................................................41 5.1: Discussion of results for first part of study (Identification of Chinese Drywall) ...................................................................................................................41 5.1.1: Strontium and its effects ...................................................................41 5.2: Discussion of results for second part of study (Preliminary assessment of exposure to particulates and heavy metals during cutting and installation of drywall) ....42 5.2.1: Effects of Particulate Matter emitted during cutting of drywall boards ................................................................................................................................45 5.2.2: Effects of lead on exposure ...............................................................46 5.2.3: Effects of
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