Determination of Beryllium in stationary sources emissions

Systemic toxic pollutants such as heavy metals, exerts its actions on different organs and human body systems, the effect being specific to this substance. Their spread in the environment is increasing and their accumulation in the environment and in the human body is important for the pathological changes that occur. Beryllium is an important component of nuclear reactors as a neutron source with low neutron-absorbing capacity. Beryllium oxide is used in insulators, resistors, spark plugs and microwave tubes from the electronics industry. Little information about atmospheric input of beryllium (Be) into ecosystems is known, despite its highly toxic behavior. Beryllium is a toxic material and an inhalation risk causing sensitization and chronic beryllium disease (CBD) to receptors. Beryllium and its compounds are included in Class I carcinogens’’ according to Order 462/1993, and the emission limit value is 0.1 mg/m3 at a mass flow greater that 0.5g/h. Beryllium emissions are isokinetically sampled from the source. The particulated emissions are collected in a probe and on heated filters and the gaseous emissions are collected in a series of chilled absorbes with absorption solutions. This paper presents the results obtained by optimizing the beryllium determination method from stationary sources emissions using electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ETAAS) and at also presents the performance characteristics of the method. The limit of detection (LOD) was 0.0018 µg/m3, the linearity range under optimized condition was 0.05 -2 µg/L and the limit of quantification (LOQ) was 0.0027 µg/m3.