Significance and Use

This practice is recommended for use primarily for non-occupational exposure monitoring in domiciles, public access buildings, and offices.

The methods described in this practice have been successfully applied to measurement of pesticides and PCBs in outdoor air and for personal respiratory exposure monitoring.

A broad spectrum of pesticides are commonly used in and around the house and for insect control in public and commercial buildings. Other semivolatile organic chemicals, such as PCBs, are also often present in indoor air, particularly in large office buildings. This practice promotes needed precision and bias in the determination of many of these airborne chemicals.

1. Scope

1.1 This practice covers the sampling of air for a variety of common pesticides and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and provides guidance on the selection of appropriate analytical measurement methods. Other compounds such as polychlorinated dibenzodioxins/furans, polybrominated biphenyls, polybrominated diphenyl ethers, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and polychlorinated naphthalenes may be efficiently collected from air by this practice, but guidance on their analytical determination is not covered by this practice.

1.2 A complete listing of pesticides and other semivolatile organic chemicals for which this practice has been tested is shown in Table 1.

1.3 This practice is based on the collection of chemicals from air onto polyurethane foam (PUF) or a combination of PUF and granular sorbent.

1.4 This practice is applicable to multicomponent atmospheres, 0.001 to 50- ? g/m ³ concentrations, and 4 to 24-h sampling periods. The limit of detection will depend on the nature of the analyte and the length of the sampling period.

1.5 The analytical method(s) recommended will depend on the specific chemical(s) sought, the concentration level, and the degree of specificity required.

1.6 The values stated in SI units are to be regarded as standard. No other units of measurement are included in this standard.

2. Referenced Documents (purchase separately) The documents listed below are referenced within the subject standard but are not provided as part of the standard.

ASTM Standards

D1193 Specification for Reagent Water

D1356 Terminology Relating to Sampling and Analysis of Atmospheres

D3686 Practice for Sampling Atmospheres to Collect Organic Compound Vapors (Activated Charcoal Tube Adsorption Method)

D3687 Practice for Analysis of Organic Compound Vapors Collected by the Activated Charcoal Tube Adsorption Method

D4185 Practice for Measurement of Metals in Workplace Atmospheres by Flame Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry

E355 Practice for Gas Chromatography Terms and Relationships

EPA Methods and Standards

NIOSH Methods

Keywords

air; Aroclors; carbamates; chlorophenols; chlorophenoxy acids; organochlorines; organophosphates; PCBs; pesticides; polychlorinated biphenyls; polyurethane foam; pyrethrins; sampling and analysis ; semivolatile organics; triazines; ureas; Adsorption; Air analysis; Air monitoring; Aroclors; Atmospheric analysis; Building materials/applications; Building sickness syndrome; Carbamates; Chlorophenols; Chlorophenoxy acids; Commercial developments; Dynamic analysis/testing; Electron-capture detectors (ECD); Flame photometric detectors (FPD); Gas chromatography (GC)--atmospheric analysis/gases; Hall electrolytic conductivity detector (HECD); Health hazards; Household pesticide monitoring; Indoor air analysis; Liquid chromatography (LC); Mass spectrometry--atmospheric analysis; Nitrogen-phosphorus detectors; Nonoccupational exposure monitoring; Office environment; Organic compounds--atmospheric; Organochlorine pesticides; Organophosphates; PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls); Pesticides; Photometry--atmospheric analysis; Polyurethane foam (PUF); Public access buildings; Pyrethrins; Retention efficiency; Sampling air/atmospheric materials/applications; Semi-volatile organic/inorganic compounds; Time tests; Triazines; Twenty-four hour testing; Spike recovery; Static tests--air/atmospheric environments; Ureas;

ICS Code

ICS Number Code 13.040.30 (Workplace atmospheres)

DOI: 10.1520/D4861-11

ASTM International is a member of CrossRef.

ASTM D4861