Assessment of increased sampling pump flow rates in a disposable, inhalable aerosol sampler

Justin Stewart; Darrah K Sleeth; Rod G Handy; Leon F Pahler; T Renee Anthony; John Volckens

doi:10.1080/15459624.2016.1237028

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Assessment of increased sampling pump flow rates in a disposable, inhalable aerosol sampler

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

Assessment of increased sampling pump flow rates in a disposable, inhalable aerosol sampler

Justin Stewart, Darrah K Sleeth, Rod G Handy, Leon F Pahler, T Renee Anthony and John Volckens

Journal of occupational and environmental hygiene, Vol.14(3), pp.207-213

03/2017

DOI: 10.1080/15459624.2016.1237028

PMCID: PMC5724042

PMID: 27676440

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http://doi.org/10.1080/15459624.2016.1237028View

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Abstract

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.

Models, Theoretical

Environmental Monitoring - instrumentation

Environmental Monitoring - methods

Air Movements

Hydrodynamics

Aerosols - analysis

Workplace

Equipment Design

Particle Size

Particulate Matter - analysis

Manikins

Air Pollutants, Occupational - analysis

Filtration - instrumentation

Details

Title: Subtitle: Assessment of increased sampling pump flow rates in a disposable, inhalable aerosol sampler
Creators: Justin Stewart - a Department of Family and Preventive Medicine , University of Utah , Salt Lake City , Utah
Darrah K Sleeth - a Department of Family and Preventive Medicine , University of Utah , Salt Lake City , Utah
Rod G Handy - a Department of Family and Preventive Medicine , University of Utah , Salt Lake City , Utah
Leon F Pahler - a Department of Family and Preventive Medicine , University of Utah , Salt Lake City , Utah
T Renee Anthony - b Department of Occupational and Environmental Health , University of Iowa , Iowa City , Iowa
John Volckens - c Department of Mechanical Engineering , Colorado State University , Fort Collins , Colorado
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: Journal of occupational and environmental hygiene, Vol.14(3), pp.207-213
DOI: 10.1080/15459624.2016.1237028
PMID: 27676440
PMCID: PMC5724042
NLM abbreviation: J Occup Environ Hyg
ISSN: 1545-9624
eISSN: 1545-9632
Publisher: England
Grant note: R01 OH010295 / NIOSH CDC HHS
Language: English
Date published: 03/2017
Academic Unit: Occupational and Environmental Health
Record Identifier: 9983997328902771

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