ASTM International

Standard Guide for Personal Samplers of Health-Related Aerosol Fractions
 N D6062

Annotation

This guide defines conventions for personal samplers of specific particle-size-dependent fractions of any given nonfibrous airborne aerosol. Such samplers are used for assessing health effects and in the setting of and testing for compliance with permissible exposure limits in the workplace and ambient environment. The conventions have been adopted by the International Standards Organization (Technical Report ISO TR 7708), the Comit Europ en de Normalisation (CEN Standard EN 481), and the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) (1).2 The conventions were developed (2) in part from health-effects studies reviewed (3) by the ACGIH and in part as a compromise between definitions proposed by the ACGIH (3) and by the British Medical Research Council (BMRC) (4). Conventions are given here for inhalable, thoracic, and respirable fractions.

This guide is complementary to Test Method D4532, which describes the performance of a particular instrument, the 10-mm cyclone, and operational procedures for use. The procedures, specifically the optimal flow rate, are still valid although the estimated accuracy differs somewhat from use with previous aerosol fraction definitions. Details on this instrument and also the Higgins-Dewell cyclone have recently been published (5-7).

Limitations:

The definitions given here were adopted by the agencies listed in 1.1 in part on the basis of expected health effects of the different size fractions, but in part allowing for available sampling equipment. The original adoption by CEN was, in fact, for the eventual setting of common standards by the EC countries while permitting the use of a variety of instrumentation. Deviations of the sampling conventions from healthrelated effects are as follows: