COMPARISON OF THE CHARCOAL TUBE AND A PASSIVE ORGANIC VAPOR DOSIMETER AS SAMPLE COLLECTION DEVICES FOR THE MEASUREMENT OF EXPOSURE TO COMPONENTS OF GASOLINE VAPOR

A comparison was made of the performance of the 3M Model 3520 passive organic vapour dosimeter to the conventional charcoal tube method for sampling of gasoline vapour, over a range of temperatures, humidities and gasoline concentrations. Excellent correlation was found between the two methods (R(2) = 0.99) under laboratory conditions. Temperature, humidity and concentration had no effect of practical significance, over the ranges studied. Residual observed differences between the methods were not attributable either to hydrocarbon type or to number of carbon atoms in the compound. The more likely explanation for the residual differences was errors in sampling and analysis. Field samples, as expected, showed greater variability and poorer correlation than the laboratory generated samples.