Comparison of fluorescence and rinsing methods for assessing dermal exposure

There are a number of methods of estimating dermal contamination. "Potential exposure" methods, such as patch and whole-body oversuit sampling, intercept the contaminant before it reaches the skin. "Actual exposure" measurements recover the contaminant from the skin by wiping, stripping, or rinsing, or, in the case of fluorescent tracer dye monitoring, assess it in-situ on the skin. These different methods can give rise to very different results. Comparison of methods is difficult, because they usually interfere within-subject. This presentation is a comparison of two compatible 'actual dermal contamination' measurement techniques. They are: (1) fluorescence monitoring of a tracer dye in-situ on the skin, using ultraviolet light and a video camera linked to an image processor; (2) rinsing of the skin to recover a metal tracer salt for later assay in solution. Several painting and spraying application tasks were carried out by a panel of volunteers who wore T-shirts, shorts, and open sandals. The exercises simulated domestic or nonoccupational tasks. Results showed excellent agreement, with discrepancies identified and explained. The good agreement of the two completely different, independent tracer methods for measuring skin contamination contributes to their mutual validation.