This International Standard specifies a method for the determination of the mass concentration of particulate arsenic and arsenic compounds and arsenic trioxide vapour in workplace air, using either continuous-flow hydride generation or flow-injection-analysis hydride generation and atomic absorption spectrometry. The method is not suitable for determination of arsenic in the form of metal arsenides which decompose in the presence of water or acid (see 10.1).

The method is applicable to the determination of masses of approximately 100 ng to 125 μg of arsenic per sample, for analysis of test solutions prepared using sample solution aliquots in the recommended range (see 9.3.2). The concentration range for arsenic in air, for which this procedure is applicable, is determined in part by the sampling procedure selected by the user.

The method is applicable to personal and fixedlocation sampling.

A number of transition metals may interfere with the determination of arsenic by hydride generation and atomic absorption spectrometry (see 10.3)