Sampling & Couting Sampling Rules

This European pre-normative project started in January 2019 within the CEN/TC 137 (Assessment of exposure to chemical and biological agents in the workplace) aims to establish harmonized recommendations for representative sampling of chemical and biological agents in the workplace. NOAA before characterization by electron microscopy.

The aim is to improve the quality of data produced for assessing occupational inhalation exposure to nano-objects, their aggregates and agglomerates (NOAA), with various reference documents having been developed in recent years to recommend the implementation of staged approaches, as well as the tools to be deployed (standard NF EN 17058:2018, report OECD n°55/2015), but several key factors for obtaining quality and comparable data have not been described in these documents. On-site inter-laboratory comparisons and the use of reference instruments (SMPS) validate the recommendations made. Rules for counting particles observed on microscopy images will also be defined to improve the comparability of microscopy data.