Inhalation of respirable crystalline silica (RCS) can cause diseases including silicosis and cancer. Levels of RCS close to an emission source are measured but little is known about the wider ambient exposure from industry emissions or natural sources. The aim of this work is to report the RCS concentrations obtained from a variety of ambient environments using a new mobile respirable (PM₄) sampler. A mobile battery powered high flow rate (52 L min⁻¹) sampler was developed and evaluated for particulate aerosol sampling employing foams to select the respirable particle size fraction. Sampling was conducted in the United Kingdom at site boundaries surrounding seven urban construction and demolition and five sand quarry sites. These are compared with data from twelve urban aerosol samples and from repeat measurements from a base line study at a single rural site. The 50% particle size penetration (d₅₀) through the foam was 4.3 μm. Over 85% of predict bias values were with ±10% of the respirable convention, which is based on a log normal curve. Results for RCS from all construction and quarry activities are generally low with a 95 th percentile of 11 μg m⁻³. Eighty percent of results were less than the health benchmark value of 3 μg m⁻³ used in some states in America for ambient concentrations. The power cutting of brick and the largest demolition activities gave the highest construction levels. Measured urban background RCS levels were typically below 0.3 μg m⁻³ and the median RCS level, at a rural background location, was 0.02 μg m⁻³. These reported ambient RCS concentrations may provide useful baseline values to assess the wider impact of fugitive, RCS containing, dust emissions into the wider environment.

吸入可吸入的结晶二氧化硅（RCS）可能引起疾病，包括矽肺病和癌症。测量了接近排放源的RCS的水平，但对于工业排放或自然源对环境的更广泛暴露知之甚少。这项工作的目的是报告使用新的可移动呼吸（PM ₄）采样器从各种环境中获得的RCS浓度。移动电池供电的高流量（52 L min ^-1）开发了采样器，并评估了使用泡沫来选择可吸入颗粒尺寸分数的颗粒气溶胶采样。采样是在英国围绕七个城市建设和拆除以及五个采石场的场地边界进行的。将这些数据与来自十二个城市气溶胶样品的数据以及来自单个农村站点的基线研究的重复测量数据进行比较。通过泡沫的50％粒度渗透（d ₅₀）为4.3μm。基于对数正态曲线，超过85％的预测偏差值具有可呼吸惯例的±10％。来自所有建筑和采石场活动的RCS结果通常很低，第95个百分位数为11μgm ^-3。80％的结果低于美国某些州针对环境浓度使用的3μgm ^-3的健康基准值。砖的动力切割和最大的拆除活动使最高的建筑水平。测得的城市本底RCS水平通常低于0.3μgm ^-3，而在农村本底位置，RCS中位数为0.02μgm ^-3。这些报告的环境RCS浓度可提供有用的基线值，以评估含RCS的逃逸性粉尘排放到更广泛环境中的更广泛影响。