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

Abstract

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 sampling are frequently used. One of the problems associated with dermal sampling is that different methods often produce different results due to differences in the principles involved in sample collection. As a consequence little progress towards establishing dermal exposure limits has been made. Both patches and clothing act as passive samplers and are intended to collect all of a substance deposited on them. This paper details the principles underlying patch and whole body sampling and outlines some of the advantages and disadvantages of each. A conceptual model has recently been proposed for dermal exposure and the role that surrogate techniques may play in the application of this model is discussed. Finally, suggestions are made as to how these techniques may be made more relevant and areas of future research highlighted.

Pesticide contamination of workers in vineyards in France

“…Several approaches have been taken to assess dermal exposure (Fenske, 1993;van Hemmen and Brouwer, 1995). Direct methods consist in the quantification of the amount of pesticides on the workers' skin or clothing, using patches or the whole body technique (Soutar et al, 2000). Hand exposure is assessed by handwashing or with the use of cotton gloves (OECD).…”

Dermal exposure assessment in occupational epidemiologic research

“…Moreover, it is at least questionable whether accurate quantitative estimates can be derived for the dermal route with current measurement methods. [For an overview of dermal exposure assessment techniques see Brouwer et al (7), Cherrie et al (8), and Soutar et al (9).] Therefore, an integrated estimate of the internal dose cannot, in many cases, be derived easily.…”

Exposure and health risk assessment of applicators to DDT during indoor residual spraying in malaria vector control program

“…The choice of the patch method for evaluation of the dermal exposure was already discussed in literature (Soutar et al, 2000). The main disadvantage is considered to be a possible over or under estimation of the real exposure because the placing of the patches can not compensate the heterogeneity of the pesticide deposits on the particular body part.…”