Assessment of Cement Dust Deposit in a Cement Factory in Cotonou (Benin)

Abstract

In order to assess the cement dust levels at the factory of the Beninese Cement Industry (BCI), at Xwlacodji, seven sampling stations (numbered 1 to 7) were set inside the industry and nine (numbered 8 to 16) were set around the factory in January, February, August and December. With the method of stainless steel plate according to NFX 43-007 AFNOR Standard, the different stations were monitored daily for dust collection all month long. The results revealed that the mean values of cement dusts inside BCI in g/m 2 /day ranged from 1.608 to 8.752 in January, from 1.13068 to 6.14924 in February, from 0.9654 to 5.2502 for August and from 1.7220 to 9.3620 for December. With regard to outside BCI, the mean values of dusts rose from 8.8760 to 18.9620 in December. The lowest mean values 3.2719 and 4.4124 were respectively recorded in February and August whereas the highest values 17.7309 and 18.9620 were respectively recorded in January and December. Our study revealed month variation in cement dust deposition with the highest values in December and January and the lowest values in February and August. It was observed that the content in cement dusts recorded outside the cement industry were extremely higher than those recorded inside the cement industry. The values in the present study have far exceeded all the international safety values (1 g/m 2 /day for AFNOR and 350 mg/m 2 /day TA-Luft) and could pose health hazards. Therefore protective measures are suggested to mitigate the risk of occupational hazards for the cement industrial workers.