How to Quantitatively Assess Dermal Exposure to Volatile Organic Compounds

Creta et al. (2017) present a method to assess dermal exposure to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) using activated charcoal cloth (ACC Perma-Tec^TM pads). They clearly demonstrate that in a controlled environmental chamber charcoal cloth patches adsorb vapour in the same way as organic vapour monitors (3M^TM 3500). There was a high degree of linearity between the response of the two measurement systems when tested against 181 different VOCs. However, the authors did not undertake any field tests of their system and, surprisingly for a sampler designed to measure dermal exposure, they did not test it using a liquid challenge. They also do not report the mass of VOC required to saturate the adsorbent—a key issue for effective quantification of dermal exposure. Finally, they did not consider how their measurements might relate to dermal uptake, which presumably is the purpose of the sampling system.