Monitoring personal, indoor, and outdoor exposures to metals in airborne particulate matter: Risk of contamination during sampling, handling and analysis

Trace elemental analysis of airborne particulate matter using dynamic reaction cell inductively coupled plasma – mass spectrometry: Application to monitoring episodic industrial emission events

“…The reaction cell approach has also been used for studying single elements in aerosols; for example, Cr [16] and Pt [17] and multiple elements [18,19] without providing details of the optimization of instrumental procedures and settings. To our knowledge, only one study has reported DRC optimization procedures in detail (including cell gas flow rate and bandpass parameter) for multi-elemental analysis in airborne particulate matter [20].…”

Ultrasonic dissolution for ICP-MS determination of trace elements in lightly loaded airborne PM filters

“…The PM mass was determined from the difference in pre-and post-buoyancy-corrected mass measurements. A full description of Health Canada's Archimedes M3 TM buoyancy-corrected gravimetric analysis facility and the standard operating procedures used in making mass measurements is provided in previous publications [10,12,[19][20][21].…”

“…The PTFE filters (47 mm PTFE filter with PMP support ring, Pall Corp.) used for sampling were first pre-conditioned for at least 24 h inside a Health Canada's Archimedes M3 TM buoyancy-corrected gravimetric analysis facility (Gravimetric lab) [19] with automated controls to maintain environmental conditions at a constant air temperature of 21 C (AE0.5 C) and constant relative humidity (RH) of 40% (AE0.2%). The uncertainty of the mass measurement was minimized using this gravimetric analysis facility [10,12,[19][20][21]. The filters were then weighed using a Mettler UMX2 microbalance (readability of AE0.1 mg) after removing static electricity interference by passing each filter between two polonium-210 strip deionizers.…”

Windsor, Ontario Exposure Assessment Study: Design and Methods Validation of Personal, Indoor, and Outdoor Air Pollution Monitoring

“…36,37 NAPS Site. On the basis of its excellent performance in comparison with the FRM dichotomous sampler, the decision was made to use the PEM as the standard method and then compare it with the TEOM at the Windsor NAPS site.…”

“…Various quality control samples were used to determine accuracy and precision of the chemical analyses and to diagnose any sources of contamination. 36,38 Blank corrections were applied when more than 50% of the field blanks were greater than the LDL. In these situations, a FDL was then calculated as being 3 times the SD of the field blanks.…”