5.1 This practice is significant for determining performance relative to ideal sampling conventions. The purposes are multifold:

5.1.1 The conventions have a recognized tie to health effects and can easily be adjusted to accommodate new findings.

5.1.2 Performance criteria permit instrument designers to seek practical sampler improvements.

5.1.3 Performance criteria promote continued experimental testing of the samplers in use with the result that the significant variables (such as wind speed, particle charge, etc.) affecting sampler operation become understood.

5.2 One specific use of the performance tests is in determining the efficacy of a given candidate sampler for application in regulatory sampling. The accuracy of the candidate sampler is measured in accordance with the evaluation tests given here. A sampler may then be adopted for a specific application if the accuracy is better than a specific value.

Note 1: In some instances, a sampler so selected for use in compliance determinations is specified within an exposure standard. This is done so as to eliminate differences among similar samplers. Sampler specification then replaces the respirable sampling convention, eliminating bias (3.2.6), which then does not appear in the uncertainty budget.

5.3 Although the criteria are presented in terms of accepted sampling conventions geared mainly to compliance sampling, other applications exist as well. For example, suppose that a specific aerosol diameter-dependent health effect is under investigation. Then for the purpose of an epidemiological study an aerosol sampler that reflects the diameter dependence of interest is required. Sampler accuracy may then be determined relative to a modified sampling convention.

1.1 This practice covers the evaluation of the performance of personal samplers of non-fibrous respirable aerosol. The samplers are assessed relative to a specific respirable sampling convention. The convention is one of several that identify specific particle size fractions for assessing health effects of airborne particles. When a health effects assessment has been based on a specific convention it is appropriate to use that same convention for setting permissible exposure limits in the workplace and ambient environment and for monitoring compliance. The conventions, which define inhalable, thoracic, and respirable aerosol sampler ideals, have now been adopted by the International Standards Organization (ISO 7708), the Comité Européen de Normalisation (CEN Standard EN 481), and the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH, Ref (1)),2 developed (2) in part from health-effects studies reviewed in Ref (3) and in part as a compromise between definitions proposed in Refs (3, 4).

1.2 This practice is complementary to Test Method D4532, which specifies a particular instrument, the 10-mm cyclone.3 The sampler evaluation procedures presented in this practice have been applied in the testing of the 10-mm cyclone as well as the Higgins-Dewell cyclone.3 ^,4 Details on the evaluation have been published (5-7) and can be incorporated into revisions of Test Method D4532.

1.3 A central aim of this practice is to provide information required for characterizing the uncertainty of concentration estimates from samples taken by candidate samplers. For this purpose, sampling accuracy data from the performance tests given here can be combined with information as to analytical and sampling pump uncertainty obtained externally. The practice applies principles of ISO GUM, expanded to cover situations common in occupational hygiene measurement, where the measurand varies markedly in both time and space. A general approach (8) for dealing with this situation relates to the theory of tolerance intervals and may be summarized as follows: Sampling/analytical methods undergo extensive evaluations and are subsequently applied without re-evaluation at each measurement, while taking precautions (for example, through a quality assurance program) that the method remains stable. Measurement uncertainty is then characterized by specifying the evaluation confidence (for example, 95 %) that confidence intervals determined by measurements bracket measurand values at better than a given rate (for example, 95 %). Moreover, the systematic difference between candidate and idealized aerosol samplers can be expressed as a relative bias, which has proven to be a useful concept and is included in the specification of accuracy (3.2.13, 3.2.13.1, 3.2.13.3).

1.4 The values stated in SI units are to be regarded as standard. No other units of measurement are included in this standard.

1.5 This standard does not purport to address all of the safety concerns, if any, associated with its use. It is the responsibility of the user of this standard to establish appropriate safety, health, and environmental practices and determine the applicability of regulatory limitations prior to use.

1.6 This international standard was developed in accordance with internationally recognized principles on standardization established in the Decision on Principles for the Development of International Standards, Guides and Recommendations issued by the World Trade Organization Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Committee.