Comparison between a personal PM10 sampling head and the tapered element oscillating microbalance (TEOM) system

A new personal PM₁₀ sampling head has been developed by the Institute of Occupational Medicine (IOM), Edinburgh. The purpose of this study was to compare its performance in the field with the accepted fixed-location PM₁₀ sampler, the tapered element oscillating microbalance (TEOM). The comparisons were carried out on three separate occasions during 1997 at each of two city centre locations in the UK. On each occasion two personal IOM PM₁₀ sampling heads were located adjacent to a TEOM monitor and four successive sets of 24-h filter samples were collected. The data was compared with 24-h average TEOM concentrations, calculated as the arithmetic mean of the recorded hourly averages. There was a statistically significant linear relationship between the two types of monitor, although the concentrations from the IOM PM₁₀ samplers were consistently higher than the TEOM data. It is therefore possible to use the regression equations presented in this paper to correct ambient PM₁₀ concentrations measured by either method to equivalent values. Further research is needed to properly understand the reason for the difference between the TEOM and filter samplers.