ABSTRACT
Employee chemical exposure monitoring is done for a variety of reasons. The primary reasons are to identify and to quantify specific chemical contaminants present in the work environment. Other important reasons for employee chemical exposure monitoring in the laboratory include routine surveillance and evaluating compliance status with respect to various occupational health standards. In the chemical laboratory, employee chemical exposure monitoring is simplified by two factors. First, the laboratory worker usually knows which contaminants are present in the laboratory from the nature of the reaction, plus knowledge of the raw chemicals, end products, and wastes. Second, usually only a single contaminant of importance is present in the laboratory atmosphere and the absence of obvious interfering substances often permits great simplification of procedures. Personal monitoring devices are especially useful for monitoring mobile employees who engage in a variety of operations involving different amounts of air contaminants of a diverse nature.
