[Characterization of particle emissions from cutting of carbon fiber reinforced concrete (Carbon concrete composite)].

Carbon concrete is a newly developed concrete composite construction material. The reinforcement of carbon concrete, in contrast to conventional reinforced concrete, is made of carbon fiber material in the form of bonded rovings as a structured layer. Upon cutting carbon concrete, the released fine dust contains components of the fiber material. In order to investigate the health relevance of these emissions, an analytical system was developed that combines a cell culture exposure system with a cutting dust generator and an aerosol generator producing reference aerosols. Furthermore, the system is equipped with a particle size spectrometer and a mass spectrometer to characterize the particle and gas phase of the released aerosols. First results for current carbon concrete configurations show that the generated dust exhibits relevant concentrations of particles in the alveolar and thoracic size fraction leading to corresponding adverse effects in exposed cells. However, in these data no significant difference between dust from the cutting of unreinforced concrete and carbon concrete can be identified. In particular, the analysis of the released fibers did not reveal any health-relevant fiber dimensions concerning the WHO recommendation.