Sampling Guide for Air Contaminants in the Workplace - Irsst

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2 IRSST – Sampling Guide for Air Contaminants in the Workplace number of non-regulated substances, but still offered in the framework of the analytical services of the IRSST's laboratories. Other guides available and published by the IRSST • Guide for the Adjustment of Permissible Exposure Values (PEVs) for Unusual Work Schedules (4). This guide describes the process for reducing time-weighted average exposure values (TWAEV) according to the substances in Schedule I and the type of work schedule. This guide must be used together with the present document. • Guide de surveillance biologique-Prélèvement et interprétation des résultats (5) (in French only). Biological monitoring is used to document workers' exposure by measuring the contaminant, metabolites or any other parameter in a biological matrix. It is used in a preventive context and may constitute a procedure complementary to the environmental monitoring described in this guide.
IRSST – Sampling Guide for Air Contaminants in the Workplace 3 Part 1: Sampling strategy Introduction This section on sampling strategy is based on American (6) and European (7) procedures, condensed and adapted to the context of the Québec occupational health and safety network. It reminds users that a representative result is obtained by using a realistic strategy, adapted to the objectives of an intervention and backed up by appropriate statistical treatment. All of the steps must be subject to a quality assurance program, and certain steps to a quality control program. Whether the objectives are preventive ones, such as those pursued by most occupational health professionals, or compliance with the ROHS or ROHSM as formulated by the inspection network of the Commission de la santé et de la sécurité du travail (CSST, Quebec occupational health and safety board), the objective of the proposed strategy is to verify contaminant concentration levels in relation to reference values. These values are either time-weighted average exposure values (TWAEVs), adjusted mean exposure values (AMEVs), short-term exposure values (STEVs), ceiling values and excursion limits established by the ROHS, or simply reference values adopted as guidelines for preventive or corrective action. For example, professional organizations such as the ACGIH ® (American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists), governmental agencies, or other different sources propose reference values. In this chapter, we will use the term "reference value" to cover all of these target values. This strategy does not apply directly to epidemiological or toxicological studies. It applies to actions such as preventive reassignment, work refusal, complaints, and the setting up of a health program specific to the establishments only if one of the intervention's objectives can be linked to the verification of the concentration levels of one or more contaminants in relation to a reference value. 1.1 Description of the sampling strategy Before beginning to evaluate a work environment, it is important that the objectives of the intervention be properly defined and that a rational procedure be followed. The decision flowchart in Figure 1 presents the logical sequence of an intervention whose objective is to measure the exposure of workers to contaminants present in their workplace. In the context of this Sampling Guide, exposure evaluation consists of comparing the concentrations of the contaminant or contaminants to which the worker may be exposed to reference values. 1.1.1 Potential exposure to contaminants The first step in evaluating a workplace is to identify potential exposures to contaminants. This identification is done through consultation or by preparing a list of all contaminants, substances and reagents that could contribute to the worker's exposure. This list includes, depending on the case, the starting materials, the impurities, the intermediates, the final products, and the by-products. In the Québec context, the consulting of safety data sheets, made mandatory by the implementation of the Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System (WHMIS), can make the documentation work easier up to a certain point. PEVs, or in their absence, reference values, are collected for each of the contaminants. As in several subsequent steps, the decision leading to the end of the specific intervention process initiates a series of actions that depends on the organizational context of the occupational health practitioner, such as the preparation of a report.
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