Evolution and quantification of the main Sensitisers in commercial portland cements

Abstract

The commercial Portland cements contain minor elements in their chemical compositions. The presence of these elements has a direct incidence in different aspects: rheological behaviour, reaction kinetics, environmental, etc. Some of them also have a negative effect on the human health; so, chromium (Cr), nickel (Ni) and cobalt (Co) are the main allergens present in Portland cements, causing of Professional Dermatitis in construction workers. The current study is focussed on the quantification of total and soluble chromium, nickel and cobalt in a wide range of Spanish commercial cements. These values can represent a contribution to the establishing of possible limitations or reductions of these elements in forthcoming standards. Analytical data show that clinkers are the main responsibles of the presence of soluble chromium in commercial cements. This fact could be indicating that chromium solubility (from inert Cr III to soluble Cr VI) would be closely related to the clinkerisation conditions. On the other hand, there is not a direct ratio between total chromium and soluble chromium; it means that analytical results are punctual and not any case can be extrapolating ones. Ni and Co solubility in water is practically negligible either raw as clinkers.