Assessment of increased sampling pump flow rates in a disposable, inhalable aerosol sampler.
A newly designed, low-cost, disposable inhalable aerosol sampler was developed to assess workers personal exposure to inhalable particles. This sampler was originally designed to operate at 10 L/min to increase sample mass and, therefore, improve analytical detection limits for filter-based methods. Computational fluid dynamics modeling revealed that sampler performance (relative to aerosol inhalability criteria) would not differ substantially at sampler flows of 2 and 10 L/min. With this in mind, the newly designed inhalable aerosol sampler was tested in a wind tunnel, simultaneously, at flows of 2 and 10 L/min flow. A mannequin was equipped with 6 sampler/pump assemblies (three pumps operated at 2 L/min and three pumps at 10 L/min) inside a wind tunnel, operated at 0.2 m/s, which has been shown to be a typical indoor workplace wind speed. In separate tests, four different particle sizes were injected to determine if the sampler's performance with the new 10 L/min flow rate significantly differed to that at 2 L/min. A comparison between inhalable mass concentrations using a Wilcoxon signed rank test found no significant difference in the concentration of particles sampled at 10 and 2 L/min for all particle sizes tested. Our results suggest that this new aerosol sampler is a versatile tool that can improve exposure assessment capabilities for the practicing industrial hygienist by improving the limit of detection and allowing for shorting sampling times.
a Department of Family and Preventive Medicine , University of Utah , Salt Lake City , Utah.
Justin
J
Stewart
a Department of Family and Preventive Medicine , University of Utah , Salt Lake City , Utah.
Darrah K
DK
Sleeth
a Department of Family and Preventive Medicine , University of Utah , Salt Lake City , Utah.
Rod G
RG
Handy
a Department of Family and Preventive Medicine , University of Utah , Salt Lake City , Utah.
Leon F
LF
Pahler
b Department of Occupational and Environmental Health , University of Iowa , Iowa City , Iowa.
T Renee
TR
Anthony
c Department of Mechanical Engineering , Colorado State University , Fort Collins , Colorado.
John
J
Volckens
D000336:Aerosols / Q000032:analysis*; D000392:Air Movements; D000395:Air Pollutants, Occupational / Q000032:analysis*; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D004867:Equipment Design; D005374:Filtration / Q000295:instrumentation; D057446:Hydrodynamics; D008348:Manikins; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D010316:Particle Size; D052638:Particulate Matter / Q000032:analysis*; D017132:Workplace
D000336:Aerosols; D000395:Air Pollutants, Occupational; D052638:Particulate Matter
Aerosols; exposure assessment; high-flow; inhalable sampler; wind tunnel
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