ASTM Standards for Air Quality

Consensus standards are essential for implementing best practices in OEHS. To have ongoing representation in the development of OEHS consensus standards, AIHA established the Standards Advisory Panel (SAP) under the AIHA Guideline Foundation. One of SAP’s roles is to survey AIHA volunteer groups to determine which standards and standards-developing organizations are significant for our profession. From one such survey, SAP concluded that ASTM International Committee D22 on Air Quality has the greatest impact.

ASTM D22 governs 209 standards of five types: test methods, which are definitive procedures that produce a test result; specifications, or explicit sets of requirements to be satisfied by a material, product, system, or service; practices, or sets of instructions for performing one or more specific operations that do not produce a test result; guides, or compendiums of information or series of options that do not recommend a specific course of action; and terminology, a document comprising definitions of terms and explanations of symbols, abbreviations, or acronyms.

SAP has assigned volunteers to represent AIHA on the D22 subcommittees that have jurisdiction over the 195 standards currently of interest to AIHA. This article describes the work of these important subcommittees. For more information about SAP, visit AIHA's website.

D22.01: QUALITY CONTROL This subcommittee provides standards for use by the rest of the D22 committee. It maintains the committee terminology standard, a guide for precision/bias calculations, and a practice for determining uncertainty. Also under the purview of D22.01 are standards that do not fit solely in any one subcommittee, including a practice for cleaning labware for use in the sample preparation and analysis for metals and metalloids, and a practice for conversion units and factors.

D22.01 is currently developing a standard for cleaning labware for use in the sample preparation and analysis for organics. Another D22.01 standard under development concerns the determination of method detection limits and addresses the incorrect belief, held by some, that EPA’s methodology as explained in 40 CFR 136 Appendix B is the definitive statement on this topic. The D22.01 subcommittee has already held a conference and two symposia on detection limits. Its standard will provide much-needed guidance that considers the various schools of thought on calculating detection limits, the circumstances under which each could be used, and technical considerations.

D22.03: AMBIENT ATMOSPHERES AND SOURCE EMISSIONS This subcommittee is responsible for test methods, practices, and guides for sampling and analysis of source and ambient atmospheres. Standards for determining concentrations of gases or particulates, including radionuclides, in those atmospheres using sensors, laboratory-based techniques, and continuous or semi-continuous monitors are among this subcommittee’s interests. Under development are standards for measuring pollutants at facility fence lines, supporting community-based monitoring, deploying sensors and maintaining quality control, and determining microplastics and PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) in air.

D22.04: WORKPLACE AIR QUALITY This subcommittee develops methods, practices, specifications, and guides for sampling and analysis of chemical agents related to occupational exposures. Under its jurisdiction are 24 test methods including workplace determinations of metals by flame atomic absorption spectrophotometry; respirable dust using cyclone samplers; benzene-soluble particulate matter; 2,4-toluene diisocyanate (2,4-TDI) and 2,6-toluene diisocyanate (2,6-TDI) by hydrobromic acid derivatization; hexavalent chromium by ion chromatography and spectrophotometric measurement using 1,5-diphenylcarbazide; beryllium by extraction and optical fluorescence detection; metalworking fluid aerosol; elements in airborne particulate matter by inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry; volatile inorganic acids (hydrochloric acid, hydrobromic acid, and nitric acid) using filter sampling and suppressed ion chromatography; and respirable crystalline silica by infrared spectrometry.

In addition to airborne sources, contaminants on surfaces are also of interest. D22.04 has developed a practice for collection of settled dust samples using wipe sampling methods for subsequent determination of metals and a guide for dermal wipe sampling for the subsequent determination of metals and metalloids. The subcommittee organizes forums, conferences, and symposia for discussion of analytical methods, quality assurance, and research relating to the determination of chemical agents of concern. Under development are a draft guide for sampling semi-volatile and non-volatile organic compounds on surfaces and a draft test method for hydrogen sulfide using real-time electrochemical detectors.

D22.05: INDOOR AIR This subcommittee focuses on measurement of concentrations of organic and inorganic chemicals, particulate matter, and radionuclides in the nonoccupational indoor environment. This includes characterization of indoor sources, fate and transport of emissions, exposure pathways, characterization of processes that may affect indoor concentrations, and stimulation of research in IAQ. Standards cover topics related to indoor air and dust sampling and analysis, emission testing for air pollutants from consumer products and building materials, ventilation, indoor air modeling, and IAQ evaluation and exposure.

D22.05 consensus standards provide procedures and protocols to address issues related to air pollutants and to ensure an energy-efficient and healthy IAQ environment for building occupants. These standards can help business and industry manufacture quality products while also safeguarding consumers and end users. Standards under development include evaluation of indoor air sensors for carbon dioxide, defining and categorizing consumer products for indoor exposure assessment, chemical assessment of air cleaning technologies, and two standards for indoor PFAS sampling and analysis.

D22.07: SAMPLING, ANALYSIS, AND MANAGEMENT OF ASBESTOS AND OTHER MICROSCOPIC PARTICLES This subcommittee has jurisdiction over a wide range of standards, practices, guidance documents, and analytical methods related to understanding, managing, detecting, and measuring asbestos and similar particles. This includes use in the general environment, in the built environment, in occupational settings, and as tools for investigators studying these hazards for industry, regulators, insurance and property owners, risk assessors, laboratories, and epidemiologists. While regulators mandate measuring, monitoring, and managing asbestos in occupational settings, they do not always describe how to achieve these ends or how to measure, survey, and manage the hazard. D22.07 standards provide OEHS investigators with tools to address these mandates. The standards cover soil in a crawlspace, comprehensive building surveys, developing concentration gradients of asbestos on surfaces after an episodic release in a building, monitoring for airborne asbestos, and other topics. D22.07 also creates e-learning modules, develops special technical publications on asbestos, holds workshops and symposia, and organizes the Michael Beard and Harry Rook international conferences.