Occupational and indoor air exposure to persistent organic pollutants: A review of passive sampling techniques and needs

Abstract

Exposure to persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and related compounds such as PCBs, brominated flame retardants, organochlorine pesticides and PAHs is regarded as an important environmental risk factor for humans. Recently concerns about POPs resulted in the international protocol called the Stockholm Convention on POPs. Air quality standards (indoor, outdoor and occupational) for PAHs and other POPs will also be applied in the EU in the future. This will bring requirements for monitoring, to check for compliance and to reduce human exposures to POPs. This can occur from point sources and in various microenvironments, indoors, outdoors and in workplaces. Monitoring can be undertaken either by an active (pumped) method or using a passive (diffusive) air sampling (PAS) device. To date, PAS for POPs have mainly been used as integrating (long-term) samplers for ambient (outdoor) air. However, there are several reasons to develop PAS for monitoring of POPs in occupational and indoor environments. We discuss the potential advantages, limitations and developments needed, so that PAS can be used reliably and routinely indoors and in occupational settings for POPs.

Passive air sampling of gaseous elemental mercury: a critical review

“…1). As long as this assumption is valid, a sampler is said to operate in the linear uptake phase (Bohlin et al, 2007;Hayward et al, 2010). If deployment is too long, the SR will decline, either because the number of available sorption sites declines as the sorbent becomes saturated or because an equilibrium distribution between atmospheric gas phase and sorbent material is approached.…”

Screening of Atmospheric Short- and Medium-Chain Chlorinated Paraffins in India and Pakistan using Polyurethane Foam Based Passive Air Sampler

“…36,37 One of the simplest passive air samplers and widely used in many studies for POPs is the polyurethane foam disk. 38,28,35,39,40 There are some studies that have used polyurethane foam based passive air sampler (PUF-PAS) to determine the CPs in the UK, 41 China, 8,21 Japan, 8 and South Korea.…”

Environmental and biological monitoring in the workplace: A 10-year South African retrospective analysis

“…Occupational exposure can occur through inhalation, absorption through the skin or ingestion, with the inhalation of vapours, dusts, fumes or gases being the route of highest exposure 1 . Both biological and environmental monitoring can help in assessment of exposure to specific chemicals, characterization of exposure pathways and potential risks and their mitigation, and thus serve as elements of health surveillance that can be used in the assessment of the risks to health as an integral part of occupational and environmental health and safety programmes.…”