Exposure Measurement at Workplaces

Exposure to airborne nanomaterials has to be assessed in view of risk assessment. Although a large variety of aerosol measurement instruments exist that can be used for exposure assessment, the correct choice of instruments remains challenging, because it is affected by the desired metric(s) to be determined, the required time and size resolution, the needed accuracy as well as the size of the instruments. The latter determines whether the instruments are usable as personal samplers or monitors to measure the individual exposure, as portable instruments for mapping or screening measurement to detect potential sources of airborne nanomaterials or as static instruments for the characterization of the workplace aerosol in a single location. The accuracy and wealth of information generally decreases with decreasing size of the instruments. The choice of instruments therefore always remains a compromise. This chapter gives an overview on available measurement strategies for assessing exposure to airborne nanomaterials in workplaces as well as on the available most commonly used commercial instrumentation.