本研究已成功開發出一套結合紅外線定位系統、化學感測器及電子控制系統新式個人暴露評估監測設備－IR-TAP。此套設備可精確的測定勞工工作時的活動位置與停留時間，並採集不同工作區域的暴露濃度，且可由勞工個人攜帶；其可改善過去傳統暴露評估方法的限制，同時解決了勞工暴露評估中關於暴露濃度、暴露位置及暴露時間等三大問題。 經由實驗室的性能測試結果顯示，IR-TAP的主機噪訊均為0，外加氣體感測器時的噪訊僅約0.2；最大耗電量為344mA，以2組鎳氫電池為電源時可連續使用至少7小時以上；定位系統的紅外線訊號接收正確率在靜置時達到99％以上，在個人攜帶的情形下亦可達94％。實際的暴露評估實驗中顯示，IR-TAP對於勞工時間-活動的記錄值與人工觀察值間有極高的相關性（R2 = 0.93∼0.99），統計上無亦顯著差異；而在暴露濃度的測量上，IR-TAP以分區採樣的方式與傳統採樣方法所得結果在統計上無顯著差異，兩者的相關係數達0.99以上。各項測試結果均顯示本套監測設備確可取代傳統暴露評估方法而獲得精確可靠的勞工時間-活動資料，且可藉此了解各種暴露濃度及暴露位置間的關係，以作為職病研究及工程改善的重要參考資料。後續應針對紅外線編碼數僅有32組的限制進行研究，並對資料傳輸的方式作更深入的探討，以便進行大規模且高效率的勞工暴露評估調查。 An Infrared enabled time activity pattern monitor (called IR-TAP) has been developed for personal exposure assessment among workers. The IR-TAP consists with four major parts: the infrared positioning system; the chemical sensor; and the electronic flow control system. It can precisely detect the position of a worker, determine the durations within the exposed area, and measure the exposed concentration in that area. Therefore, using the IR-TAP, the three major parameters in exposure assessment — time, position, and concentration can be solved simultaneously. The laboratory tests showed that the power consumption of the IR-TAP was 344 mA. It can be continuously operated for 7 hours when using two sets of Ni-H battery packs. The reproducibility tests indicated that the IR-TAP had 94 to 99% accuracy in determining the worker’s positions. The field studies showed that the worker’s time-activity patterns measured by the IR-TAP were highly correlated with that obtained by human observations (R2=0.93~0.99). The personal exposure experiments also showed that the exposed concentrations measured by the IR-TAP had no significant variation with those measured by the conventional TWA method. The correlation coefficient between these two methods were as high as 0.99. The results indicated that the IR-TAP can be used as an alternative method in investigating personal exposures. The technique developed in this research provides not only measurements of exposed concentrations, but also precise time-activity patterns of labors. With this tool on hands, further investigations of how worker’s activity patterns can affect exposure dose are make possible. Future works, such as full scale field studies, determining the limitation of the IR-TAP, and the extending the use of this technique in different working places and industries are needed to fully understand the power of this new device.
