Hazard assessment in a waste sorting plant

This study aimed to conduct a comprehensive assessment of microbiological and toxicological hazards at the workstations in a waste sorting plant and develop guidelines for selecting filtering respiratory protective devices that would consider specific workplace conditions. The research included the assessment of quantity (culture method), diversity (high-throughput sequencing), and metabolites (endotoxin - gas chromatography-mass spectrometry; secondary metabolites - liquid chromatography tandem-mass spectrometry) of microorganisms occurring in the air and settled dust. Moreover, cytotoxicity of settled dust against a human epithelial lung cell line was determined with an MTT (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) assay.