Field evaluation of a passive sampler for the exposure assessment of 2-methoxyethanol.
OBJECTIVE
This paper presents a field evaluation of 3 M 3500 passive badges for measuring 2-methoxyethanol (ME) in a humid working environment.


METHODS
A total of 93 pairs of side-by-side active/passive samples, 48 pairs of duplicate active samples, 52 pairs of duplicate passive samples, and three groups of six replicate active/passive samples were compared. Three groups of six replicate active charcoal/active charcoal tube with drying tube samples were also compared to evaluate the humidity effect.


RESULTS
No statistical difference was found between the passive badges and active samplers. Linear regression showed the correlation to be high (r = 0.992, slope = 0.973, n = 93) over the range of 0.17-163 ppm. The mean concentration difference was -0.34 ppm and the mean relative error was 3.50%. The intraclass correlation coefficients of 48 duplicate active samples and 52 duplicate passive samples were 0.994 and 0.989, respectively. The precision of replicate passive, active, and active/drying tube samples (n = 6) were 3.84%, 7.14%, and 5.12%, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
The humidity effect for active samples was insignificant at the low sampling rate (36.3 ml/min). It is therefore concluded that the use of the passive samplers to assess ME exposure produces comparable findings to that of active sampling.
Shih
T S
TS
Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, Council of Labor Affairs, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China.
Chen
C Y
CY
Cheng
R I
RI
Wu
L J
LJ
D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004864:Equipment and Supplies / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005026:Ethylene Glycols / Q000633:toxicity*; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006813:Humidity; D011786:Quality Control; D015203:Reproducibility of Results
D005026:Ethylene Glycols; C005219:methyl cellosolve