Effect of VOC Glue on Table Tennis Players | Original Article

ABSTRACT:

The purpose of this technical presentation is to describe how the tournament officials may check and measure that a racket is legal and does not release volatile solvent vapours. During a tournament the umpires, the referees and racket controllers contribute to an efficient inspection of the rackets. The volatile solvents used to prepare racket may harm our health in three ways, depending how they get into the body: By inhalation: the most important way, the vapours of the solvents in the air are breathed and go easily through the lungs to the blood. By contact: the solvents go directly through the skin to the blood. By ingestion: the solvents may be ingested through the mouth by contact with the hands, etc. The instrument that ITTF use to detect such volatile solvents is Mini RAE Lite®, developed by RAE Systems, a worldwide known company expert in chemical and radiation detection. Mini RAE-Lite is a photoionization detector (PID) which uses ultraviolet (UV) light source of electron volts to break down chemicals to positive and negative ions (ionization) that can easily be counted with a detector. This device shall be used together with a special cap connected by two Teflon tubes to the Mini RAE-Lite. The tolerance for VOC is 3.0 ppm. It is the responsibility of each player to ensure that racket coverings are attached to their racket blade with adhesives that do not contain harmful volatile solvents.