Abstract
Methods for atmospheric vinyl chloride measurement have been reviewed. The lowest detection limits and most specific measurement are achieved by scrubbing atmospheric samples with activated charcoal, desorbing the vinyl chloride, and assaying it by gas chromatography (GC). NIOSH currently recommends collecting samples using tubes packed with 150 mg of coconut shell charcoal, desorbing with carbon disulfide, and analyzing by GC equipped with flame-ionization detection (FID); the method is capable of detecting less than 1 ppm vinyl chloride and has an apparent recovery of about 90%. With thermal desorption techniques, the detection limit can be reduced to the ppb level with no loss of accuracy or precision.'Some field methods, such as infrared analysis and conductivity measurement, are capable of detecting 1 ppm or lower but are subject to interferences by other contaminants; they could be useful for evaluating sources of vinyl chloride leaks and for continuous monitoring. Permeation tubes are superior to gravimetric or volumetric methods for generating atmospheres of known vinyl chloride concentration.