A collaborative European study of personal inhalable aerosol sampler performance

Area of Science:

• Occupational hygiene and industrial toxicology
• Aerosol science and particle characterization
• Environmental monitoring and regulatory compliance

Background:

• International conventions for sampling inhalable, thoracic, and respirable aerosol fractions have been adopted.
• A draft standard by the Comité Européen de Normalisation (CEN) outlines performance criteria for workplace aerosol sampling instruments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To verify the experimental, statistical, and mathematical procedures in the draft CEN performance standard.
• To assess the applicability of these procedures to inhalable aerosol samplers.
• To provide recommendations for revising the CEN draft standard for practical implementation.

Main Methods:

• Eight types of personal inhalable aerosol samplers, commonly used in European workplaces, were tested.
• The study applied the procedures recommended in the draft CEN performance standard to these samplers.
• Experimental data on sampler performance under various conditions were collected and analyzed.

Main Results:

• Several tested samplers demonstrated adequate performance according to the inhalable sampling convention under limited workplace conditions.
• Sampler performance was generally best under low external wind speeds, simulating indoor workplace environments.
• The study identified significant experimental errors, impacting the precision of the performance data.

Conclusions:

• Recommendations were made to revise the CEN draft standard, focusing on simplifying tests and reducing costs.
• Further development of simpler test facilities and methods is necessary.
• The collected performance data, despite experimental limitations, offer valuable input for regulating and implementing the CEN inhalable sampling convention in occupational hygiene practice.