Comparison between a personal PM10 sampling head and the tapered element oscillating microbalance (TEOM) system

A new personal PM10 sampling head has been developed by the Institute of Oc cupational Medicine (IOM), Edinburgh. The purpose of this study was to comp are its performance in the field with the accepted fixed-location PM10 samp ler, the tapered element oscillating microbalance (TEOM). The comparisons w ere carried out on three separate occasions during 1997 at each of two city centre locations in the UK. On each occasion two personal IOM PM10 samplin g heads were located adjacent to a TEOM monitor and four successive sets of 24-h filter samples were collected. The data was compared with 24-h averag e TEOM concentrations, calculated as the arithmetic mean of the recorded ho urly averages. There was a statistically significant linear relationship be tween the two types of monitor, although the concentrations from the IOM PM 10 samplers were consistently higher than the TEOM data. It is therefore po ssible to use the regression equations presented in this paper to correct a mbient PM10 concentrations measured by either method to equivalent values. Further research is needed to properly understand the reason for the differ ence between the TEOM and filter samplers. (C) 1999 Published by Elsevier S cience Ltd. All rights reserved.