Use of patches and whole body sampling for the assessment of dermal exposure.

There has been a growing awareness of the importance of dermal exposure in recent years. A wide range of techniques are employed to measure exposure, of which surrogate skin techniques such as patch sampling and whole body sampling are frequently used. One of the problems associated with dermal sampling is that different methods often produce different results due to differences in the principles involved in sample collection. As a consequence little progress towards establishing dermal exposure limits has been made. Both patches and clothing act as passive samplers and are intended to collect all of a substance deposited on them. This paper details the principles underlying patch and whole body sampling and outlines some of the advantages and disadvantages of each. A conceptual model has recently been proposed for dermal exposure and the role that surrogate techniques may play in the application of this model is discussed. Finally, suggestions are made as to how these techniques may be made more relevant and areas of future research highlighted.