BS ISO 15202-3:2004

This standard BS ISO 15202-3:2004 Workplace air. Determination of metals and metalloids in airborne particulate matter by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry is classified in these ICS categories:

• 13.040.30 Workplace atmospheres

This part of ISO 15202 specifies a procedure for the use of inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry for analysing test solutions prepared as prescribed in ISO 15202-2 from samples of airborne particulate matter collected as specified in ISO 15202-1. Method development, performance checks and a routine analysis method are specified.

This part of ISO 15202 is applicable for the assessment of workplace exposure to metals and metalloids for comparison with limit values (see e.g. EN 689^[1], ASTM E 1370^[2], etc.).

The following is a non-exclusive list of metals and metalloids for which limit values have been set (see Reference [3]), and for which one or more of the sample dissolution methods specified in ISO 15202-2 and the analytical procedure described in this part of ISO 15202 are applicable. However, there is no information available on the effectiveness of any of the sample dissolution methods specified in ISO 15202-2 for those elements in italics.

aluminium	calcium	magnesium	selenium	tungsten
antimony	chromium	manganese	silver	uranium
arsenic	cobalt	mercury	sodium	vanadium
barium	copper	molybdenum	strontium	yttrium
beryllium	hafnium	nickel	tantalum	zinc
bismuth	indium	phosphorus	tellurium	zirconium
boron	iron	platinum	thallium
caesium	lead	potassium	tin
cadmium	lithium	rhodium	titanium

NOTE ISO 15202 is not applicable to determination of elemental mercury, since mercury vapour is not collected using the sampling method specified in ISO 15202-1.

The procedure is suitable for assessment of exposure against the long-term exposure limits for most of the metals and metalloids listed above when sampling at a typical flow rate of 2 l·min⁻¹ for sampling times in the range 30 min to 8 h and for assessment of exposure against the short-term exposure limits, where applicable (see 10.4).

The procedure suffers from no significant spectral interferences (see 10.5), provided that suitable analytical wavelengths are used. However, inaccurate background correction and/or inadequate matrix-matching can adversely affect results.