Development of a passive sampler to measure personal exposure to gaseous PAHs in community settings

A sensitive, simple, and cost-effective passive sampling methodology was developed to quantify personal exposure to gaseous polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). A Fan-Lioy passive PAH sampler (FL-PPS) is constructed from 320 sections of 1-cm long SPB-5 GC columns (0.75-mm i.d. and 7-microm film thickness), similar to a mini-honeycomb denuder. Given the unique feature of the GC column stationary phase, gaseous PAHs are collected on the inner surfaces of the columns by molecular diffusion and thermally desorbed to GC/MS for analysis. The sampling rates of FL-PPS were determined in the laboratory using a controlled test atmosphere containing eight PAHs for a range of face velocity, temperature, relative humidity, PAH concentration, and sampling duration. The sampling rate (mean, %RSD, cm3/min) was 26.7 (21%) for acenaphthylene, 37.6 (25%) for acenaphthene, 56.2 (13%) for fluorene, 49.1 (25%) for phenanthrene, 62.7 (22%) for anthracene, 65.4 (24%) for fluoranthene, and 64.4 (18%) for pyrene over a sampling duration of 8-48 h. The sampling rate for naphthalene was approximately 14.1 (12%) cm3/min over a sampling period of 8 h but decreased along with an increase of sampling time. The effects of temperature, humidity, face velocity, and PAH concentration on the sampling rate were not significant for all the compounds tested. A reasonable agreement (<30%) was obtained for most compounds measured by FL-PPS and a conventional active PAH sampling method colocated side-by-side in the field, but a sampling time of 24 h or longer was required for detection of less abundant PAHs in community settings.