EUROPEAN SAMPLING INTERCOMPARISONS FOR AROMATIC AND CHLORINATED HYDROCARBONS IN WORKPLACE AIR

Thirty-eight laboratories of the EU Member States, representing govern ment, manufacturers of personal samplers, industrial and university la boratories have participated in a quality assurance scheme which allow s to evaluate errors associated with both the sampling and analytical step of personal sampling methods. State-of-the-art bias, within and b etween laboratory coefficients of variation for pumped and diffusive m ethods currently applied are discussed. The data enable verification o f compliance of the method-laboratory combinations with EN 482 and qua ntification of errors, in specific related to the sampling step. The m erits of the project regarding improved procedures and results are dis cussed in detail. (C) 1997 British Occupational Hygiene Society. Publi shed by Elsevier Science Ltd.