Use of patches and whole body sampling for the assessment of dermal exposure

There has been a growing awareness of the importance of dermal exposure in recent years. A wide range of techniques are employed to measure exposure, of which surrogate skin techniques such as patch sampling and whole body sa mpling are frequently used, One of the problems associated with dermal samp ling is that different methods often produce different results due to diffe rences in the principles involved in sample collection. As a consequence li ttle progress towards establishing dermal exposure limits has been made. Bo th patches and clothing act as passive samplers and are intended to collect all of a substance deposited on them, This paper details the principles un derlying patch and whole body sampling and outlines some of the advantages and disadvantages of each. A conceptual model has recently been proposed fo r dermal exposure and the role that surrogate techniques may play in the ap plication of this model is discussed. Finally, suggestions are made as to h ow these techniques may be made more relevant and areas of future research highlighted. (C) 2000 British Occupational Hygiene Society, Published by El sevier Science Ltd, All rights reserved.