Comparing Metal Collection between Unmodified and Resin-impregnated Polyurethane Foam

Abstract

Indoor dust could contain numerous contaminants including metals from various origins. Polyurethane foam (PUF) has been used to measure trace metals in the ambient environment but has not been tested as a personal sampler. Moreover, metal-chelating materials such as Chelex-100 resin have a greater affinity to metals over other materials. Thus, this study aims at comparing the performance of metal collection by PUF and PUF modified by Chelex-100 resin and metal-neutral resin (XAD-4) by conducting one experiment at a fixed site and two experiments involving PUF inserted into wristbands. Of 9 measured metals, results show that unamended PUF samplers performs better in general, whereas PUF coated with Chelex-100 resin has greater abilities only for specific metals such as Cu, Mn, and Ni. In addition, PUF infused with XAD-4 resin does not show improvement in metal collection.