Study of fifteen respirable aerosol samplers used in occupational hygiene

European and international standards lay down criteria for the size-selecti ve aerosol sampling in occupational hygiene, Aerosol samplers are supposed to match these target sampling criteria, This study focused on 15 aerosol s amplers used to sample the conventional respirable fraction, An aerodynamic particle sizer (APS) method was used to measure the sampling efficiency of the samplers in a low-velocity wind tunnel, Polydisperse coat dust was gen erated as the test aerosol, The data were fitted by an appropriate mathemat ical model, For some instruments the results show serious deviations from t he conventional target curve, whereas other devices meet the convention qui te well, The Row rate of certain cyclone-separator-based instruments was op timized to adjust their sampling efficiency, The mass concentration bias an d accuracy of the samplers were calculated for a number of ranges of partic le size distributions of aerosols commonly found in industrial workplaces, Finally, the performance of each sampler was evaluated using bias and accur acy maps, Most of these samplers are suitable for sampling the CEN-ISO-ACGI H respirable fraction of aerosols, but several require modification of the flow rate, For real industrial situations, the rough knowledge of the aeros ol size distribution can guide the choice of an appropriate sampling techni que, (C) 2001 British Occupational Hygiene Society, Published by Elsevier S cience Ltd, All rights reserved.