Wade R. Thompson

Many automotive shops use a laundry service to clean their soiled shop towels. Previous studies have shown the towels can retain metals even after laundering and long-term exposure to certain metals such as lead could potentially result in health issues to employees using the towels. Laundered shop towels were collected from local automotive shops and analyzed to assess the ability of X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy using a handheld system to measure harmful metal contaminants such as lead in the towels.