Georgia Local Section, AIHA
 Summer Seminar, July 2002
Gas and Vapor Detection

Date:          July 19, 2002 (Friday); 10:00 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.
Location:    Mirant Corporation
                    1155 Perimeter Center West
                    Atlanta, Georgia
                    (next to Sandy Springs MARTA Station)
                    (click here for map and driving directions)
                     Note: please park on upper level of parking deck

TO REGISTER: Please make your check payable to Georgia Local Section, AIHA and mail to:

Ryan Langton
Treasurer, Georgia Local Section, AIHA
Georgia Tech Research Institute
151 6th Street, Okeefe Building
Atlanta, Ga 30332-0837

Telephone: 404-894-2644

E-mail pre registration is allowed but you are obligated to pay your registration fee even if you later decide you can't attend.

Presented by: Martin Harper, PhD CIH, Assistant Professor,
University of Alabama, Birmingham

Agenda: (Click here for printer friendly version)

Sampling for Gases and Vapors
(2.5 hours)

IH Laboratory quality assurance, proficiency testing and accreditation (1.5 hours)
  • Method requirements
  • Pumps for active sampling
  • Adsorptive sampling: solvent desorption
    • Desorption efficiency
    • Sample capacity (breakthrough)
    • Storage stability
    • Effect of humidity on desorption efficiency, capacity and storage
    • Sorbents: charcoal, Anasorb 747, silica gel, polymers
  • Adsorptive sampling: thermal desorption
    • Theory
    • Advantages and disadvantages
    • Sorbents: polymers, graphitized carbon blacks, carbon molecular sieves
  • Whole air sampling:
    • Tedlar bags
    • SUMMA/SilicoSteel canisters
  • Active vs diffusive/passive sampling
  • On-site methods of colorimetric sampling
    • Detector tubes
  • Chemically treated sorbents for reactive gases
  • Sampling semi-volatile compounds, pesticides
  • Laboratory analytical methods overview
  • Good practices for quality assurance
  • AIHA Laboratory quality programs
  • ISO 17025 and laboratory accreditation
  • Accreditation requirements
  • Accreditation procedure
  • Proficiency testing (AIHA)
  • Proficiency testing (Europe)
  • AIHA/Europe cooperation
  • Developments in QA procedures:
    • Silica
    • Fiber counting

One-half Certification Maintenance (CM) awarded - ABIH approval # 02-2287

Dr Harper was once Chair of the AIHA's Gas and Vapor Detection Systems Committee and a member of their Sampling and Laboratory Analysis Committee. He served 3 years with the AIHA's Industrial Hygiene Laboratory Accreditation Committee and 3 years on the Analytical Accreditation Board. Dr. Harper was also Chair of the proficiency test committee of the National Conference on Laboratory Accreditation (NACLA). He is the current Secretary of ASTM D22.04 Committee on Sampling and Analysis of Workplace Atmospheres and Chair of ISO Technical Committee 146 (Air Quality), subcommittee 2 (Workplace Atmospheres).