THE SIGNIFICANCE OF WIPE SAMPLES

A search for any meaningful quantitative correlation between wipe samples and concurrent airborne concentrations of the same contaminant was made. A preliminary literature search revealed little. A questionnaire survey was conducted of the members of the American Industrial Hygiene Association, the American Conference of Government Industrial Hygienists, and the Health Physics Society. Follow-up was conducted for all responses concerning available data and/or literature references. The Health Physics profession has done most of the work in this field. Reported ratios between surface and air concentrations cover a million-fold range, with most of the data showing a thousand-fold range. For Industrial Hygiene purposes, there is no usable quantitative correlation between air and wipe samples. Wipe samples are useful for estimating skin absorption if adequate absorption data is available. Ingestion may also be estimated if consumption of food or drink, or smoking, is permitted in contaminated areas. A basis for using wipe samples in determining whether surfaces are ''as clean as practicable'' is suggested. Surface contamination by infectious biological agents is not included in this discussion.