Laboratory study of selected personal inhalable aerosol samplers

Assessment of inhalable dust exposure requires reliable sampling methods in order to measure airborne inhalable particles' concentrations. Many inhalable aerosol samplers can be used but their performances widely vary and remain unknown in some cases. The sampling performance of inhalable samplers is strongly dependent on particle size and ambient air velocity. Five inhalable aerosol samplers have been studied in two laboratory wind tunnels using polydisperse glass-beads' test aerosol. Samplers tested were IOM sampler (UK), two versions of CIP 10-I sampler, v1 and v2 (F), 37-mm closed face cassette sampler (USA), 37-mm cassette fitted up with an ACCU-CAP insert (USA), and Button sampler (USA). Particle size-dependent sampling efficiencies were measured in a horizontal wind tunnel under a 1 m s(-1) wind velocity and in a vertical tunnel under calm air, using a specific method with Coulter(R) counter particle size number distribution determinations. Compared with CEN-ISO-ACGIH sampling criteria for inhalable dust, the experimental results show fairly high sampling efficiency for the IOM and CIP 10-I v2 samplers and slightly lower efficiencies for the Button and CIP 10-I v1 samplers. The closed face cassette (4-mm orifice) produced the poorest performances of all the tested samplers. This can be improved by using the ACCU-CAP internal capsule, which prevents inner wall losses inside the cassette. Significant differences between moving air and calm air sampling efficiency were observed for all the studied samplers.