Physico-chemical properties of quartz from industrial manufacturing and its cytotoxic effects on alveolar macrophages: The case of green sand mould casting for iron production.

Industrial processing of materials containing quartz induces physico-chemical modifications that con-tribute to the variability of quartz hazard in different plants. Here, modifications affecting a quartz-richsand during cast iron production, have been investigated. Composition, morphology, presence of radicalsassociated to quartz and reactivity in free radical generation were studied on a raw sand and on a dustrecovered after mould dismantling. Additionally, cytotoxicity of the processed dust and ROS and NO gen-eration were evaluated on MH-S macrophages. Particle morphology and size were marginally affected bycasting processing, which caused only a slight increase of the amount of respirable fraction. The raw sandwas able to catalyzeoOH and CO2o-generation in cell-free test, even if in a lesser extent than the referencequartz (Min-U-Sil), and shows hAlradicals, conventionally found in any quartz-bearing raw materials.Enrichment in iron and extensive coverage with amorphous carbon were observed during processing.