A Field-Portable Colorimetric Method for the Measurement of Peracetic Acid Vapors: A Comparison of Glass and Plastic Impingers

A method for measuring PAA vapors in air using impinger sampling and field-portable colorimetric analysis is presented. The capture efficiency of aqueous media in glass and plastic impingers was evaluated when used for PAA vapor sampling. Measurement of PAA was done using a N,N-diethyl-p-phenylenediamine (DPD) colorimetric method with a field portable spectrometer. The linearity of the DPD method was determined for PAA both in-solution and captured from vapor phase using glass or plastic impingers. The Limit of Detection (LOD) for the glass and plastic impinger (0.24 mg/m3 (0.077 mg/L) and 0.28 mg/m3 (0.091 mg/L)), respectively, and Limit of Quantitation (LOQ) (0.79 mg/m3 (0.25 mg/L) and 0.92 mg/m3 (0.30 mg/L) for the glass and plastic impingers, respectively, are below the threshold limit value (TLV) short term exposure limit (STEL) of 1.24 mg/m3 (0.4 ppm) over a 15 minute period. This impinger method allows for a low cost, easy to use, and rapid in-field measurement for occupational exposure to PAA.