Personal Exposures to Wood Dust of Woodworkers in the Furniture Industry in the High Wycombe Area: A Statistical Comparison of 1983 and 1976/77 Survey Results *

Results are reported of a 1983 air sampling survey at seven furniture factories in the High Wycombe area to determine operators' exposures to airborne wood dust. For all the factories surveyed the mean time weighted average concentrations derived from personal sampling results at conversion (2.3 mg m −3 ) and component making (3.4 mg m −3 ) operations show that airborne wood dust was in general controlled to below 5 mg m −3 . The high mean value of 7 mg m −3 obtained at assembly is attributed mainly to inadequate dust control at some sanding and hand sanding operations. A comparison between the results from the survey and an earlier one (1976/77) indicates that there has been a significant decline in personal exposures to wood dust in the furniture factories surveyed.