Updating good practices for developing a sampling strategy

Assessing chemical risks at the workplace can include a chemicals measurement step whose aim is to assess the exposures of the workers. In order to perform exposure diagnostic assessments that are representative of the risks, the measurements should be taken by following a strategy. The French context is changing in this field: the French decree of 15 December 2009 (which describes the way in which a sampling strategy should be established) could be revised, bioaerosols and nanoaerosols are not taken into consideration in the INRS recommendations on such a strategy, the concept of Homogeneous Exposure Group (“Groupe d’Exposition Homogène”, introduced in the regulations) is vague and the development of knowledge about multi-exposures might call the practices into question.

This study aims to propose an update of good practices for developing a sampling strategy taking the above points into consideration. Current strategy practices, in particular for bioaerosols and nanoaerosols, will be identified and the differences and similarities will be highlighted. As far as possible, reference data on exposure to bioaerosols and nanoaerosols will be collected in order to simulate the impact of various strategies on exposure diagnostic assessment. A methodology for forming homogeneous exposure groups will be proposed and tested on the historic data contained in the COLCHIC database. Experiments on the impact of taking multi-exposures into consideration on diagnostic assessments will be conducted by applying the algorithms MiXie to the historic data of the COLCHIC database. Items of good sampling strategy practice will be deduced from the results.

A summary publication for the international scientific community is planned.
Two disseminations are planned for French occupational safety & health specialists: an update of the training for “assessing chemical risks – establishing a sampling strategy” (“évaluation du risque chimique – établir une stratégie de prélèvement”), and a methodological publication concerning good practices for establishing a sampling strategy, the publication media remaining to be defined.