Dermal Measurement and Wipe Sampling Methods: A Review

Measurement of dermal exposure resulting from contaminants being deposited directly on the skin or a worker physically contacting a contaminated surface is important in the overall assessment of a worker's exposure. Methods developed to measure the quantity of chemical contaminants deposited directly on the skin include the use of exposure patches, clothing, skin swabs, liquid rinses, and tracers. In addition to these direct measures of skin contamination, biological monitoring has been used to indirectly measure dermal exposure. While these methods provide information on the mass of a chemical contaminant that has been deposited on the skin, they fail to provide information about the mass of chemical on a contaminated surface. Currently the most common method used to assess potential exposure from a contaminated surface is wipe sampling. While wipe sampling provides information about the mass of contaminant on a surface, the method suffers from a lack of standardization and fails to relate the mass of contaminant on a surface to the mass transferred to a worker's skin. A review of the methods currently being used for dermal exposure measurement and wipe sampling is presented.