An objective comparison of surface wipe media for sampling lead on hands.

Details

• Personal Author:
  Boeniger, Mark F.
• Description:
  Hand contamination by toxic compounds, such as lead, presents a potentially significant health hazard to workers if the contamination is transferred to the mouth by food, smoking, etc. One method to sample the mass of contamination on hands is to wipe the skin and analyze the wipe media. Commercially available prewetted wipe media that are presently used for sampling lead include Palintest7 wipes, Wash'nDry7 wipes, and Ghost wipes. The Palintest and Wash'nDry media are made of cellulose fiber while the Ghost wipe is made of a nonwoven polyvinyl alcohol fiber. An ASTM test method E 1792 provides some specific minimum requirements and some nonspecific criteria that these media should meet. However, no objective determination of the performance or characteristics of these different wiping media were found in the open literature, and several practical aspects of these wipes were measured such as tear resistance, wetness, and drying rate which were not specified by E 1792. Also, a laboratory study was performed to assess the recovery of lead oxide (PbO) dust from hands at two loading levels. Up to four successive wipes were taken during each hand wiping and analyzed individually. The results of this study indicate that only about 52 - 62% of the total lead loading is recovered with the first wipe but that up to 75% recovery could be obtained with three successive wipes. Ghost wipes contain about twice the moisture as the cellulostic wipes, even though the dry weight and size are approximately the same. The drying rate for each wipe media are essentially the same, although the Ghost wipe lost the least amount of moisture in a three minute time period during which they were tested. Tear resistance, as measured in grams for a 1.24/ strip of Wash & Dry, Palintest, and Ghost wipes were 381, 1469 and 1975, respectively. Abrasion resistance paralleled tear resistance with the two cellulostic wipes having less abrasion resistance than the Ghost wipe. The results of these performance measures should be helpful for selecting wipe media for environmental and industrial hygiene surface and skin sampling for lead be addressing these critical performance efficiencies.
• Subjects:
  Accidents, Occupational Air Pollutants, Occupational Air Pollution, Indoor Butanones Nervous System Diseases Occupational Health Preceptorship Printing Safety Solvents
• Keywords:
  Absorption-rates Lead-absorption Lead-dust Lead-poisoning Occupational-hazards Occupational-health Skin-absorption Skin-disorders Skin-exposure Skin-irritants Skin-tests

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• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Abstract
• Place as Subject:
  Ohio ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 5 ; West Virginia
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DSHEFS - Division of Surveillance, Hazard Evaluations, and Field Studies
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20027240
• Citation:
  Occupational and Environmental Exposures of Skin to Chemicals, June 12-15, 2005, Stockholm, Sweden. Morgantown, WV: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, 2005 Jun; :1
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2005
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Source Full Name:
  Occupational and Environmental Exposures of Skin to Chemicals, June 12-15, 2005, Stockholm, Sweden
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:0e1359c8ffb420af163240665dee24bf5d163a19bed652739e7a0e0671e7f483f4ee03ea07b21f22e3a4ab84a9ff0e9580a9fdf062d7c859b33ac67a238d32d2
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/181309/cdc_181309_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 429.92 KB ]