Glass wool refers to the chain silicate in the form of fiber in nature, which has commercial value. As a non-metallic material, it is widely used in various fields because of its excellent properties such as heat resistance, heat insulation, wear resistance, electrical insulation and chemical corrosion resistance.
The harm of glass wool is that long-term inhalation of glass wool dust will lead to glass wool deposition. The clinical symptoms of patients with glass wool disease are bronchial inflammation and emphysema, which leads to glass wool lung.
Although glass wool has a wide range of uses and low price, some developed countries have strictly restricted the use of glass wool because of its serious harm and carcinogenic problems. At present, the use of glass wool substitutes is strongly advocated, and China has already begun to study the production, use, harm and protective measures of glass wool substitutes.
The production and application of glass wool substitutes have developed rapidly. At present, there are more than 50 kinds of/kloc-0, but the most commonly used ones are: glass wool, rock wool, slag wool and bleached soil fiber, green slope stone, sepiolite and so on. Because of its biological activity and pathogenicity, it has been concerned by people.
Rock wool is an artificial inorganic fiber made of selected basalt or diabase with a certain proportion of slag, which is further processed into rock wool board, rock wool tube, rock wool felt and other products after high temperature melting.
Glass wool is an artificial inorganic fiber made by crushing limestone, pyrophyllite, quartz sand, magnesite, fluorite and other rocks into powder, stirring evenly, adding sodium sulfate, mirabilite and other substances, and melting at 1000- 1500℃ through different processes (such as wire drawing, blowing and centrifugation).
The hazards of glass wool substitutes to human health are:
Respiratory hazards:
Workers exposed to glass wool, rock wool and mineral wool may have X-ray chest film changes, that is, pneumoconiosis changes. FVC (forced expiratory volume) of lung function is lower than normal, but it is far less serious than that of glass wool workers. Pathological examination of lung biopsy of workers exposed to glass fiber showed that there were glass fiber dust cell foci, mild gliosis, lung cancer and lung abscess in lung tissue. When exposed to low concentration (2.5 root/ml), the lung function of workers did not change much even after 20 years of exposure. Workers exposed to high concentration of glass fiber dust have symptoms of upper respiratory tract irritation and asthma attack. 0.5 micron and 0.7 micron thick glass fibers can be detected from the lung lavage fluid of patients.
In addition, workers exposed to bleached soil fiber, green slope stone and sepiolite showed atypical shadows on chest films, and lung biopsy showed bronchiolitis, reticular fiber hyperplasia, fibrous foci and other changes.
Skin hazards:
Contact dermatitis often occurs in glass fiber workers, but some workers can gradually tolerate it, which is called "hardening phenomenon". The degree of damage to skin varies according to fiber diameter and surface roughness. At present, it is recognized that the fiber diameter exceeds 5μm, which has obvious stimulating effect. A few workers exposed to glass fibers and rock wool have skin allergies, but it has not been proved that these fibers are allergens themselves.