Hardwood dust is a human carcinogen; upon
inhalation, it can cause sinonasal adenocarcinoma. Softwood,
on the other hand, is only suspected of carcinogenic
properties. However, the toxicology-based recommended
exposure limits for hardwood and softwood dust in working
environments have been derived identically. While it is
very simple to distinguish the wood by morphological
evaluations, the wood dust produced in working activities
does not allow differentiation. Thermal analysis, especially
thermogravimetry, was applied to evaluate the different
characteristic thermal profile of standard hardwood and
softwood dusts. The different TG and DTG traces allow to
propose thermogravimetry as a new tool to distinguish and
quantify the different dust origin