Removal characteristics of wipe devices under various conditions

Understanding the removal factor for specific conditions is essential to estimate removable surface contamination levels by wiping. The removal characteristics of dry foamed polystyrene pads and filter paper applied to polyvinyl chloride flooring are investigated using ¹⁴C-thymidine under various conditions (i.e., weight of contaminants, wax coating, temperature and humidity). Eight wipes were performed per flooring piece with a uniformly deposited contaminant to estimate the total removable surface contamination. The wipe devices were pressed against the surface by 2 kg-force with fingertips. The first wipe ratio (the ratio of the activity removed by the first wipe to the activity removed by eight wipes) from flooring on which was deposited 500 μg mL^-1 of ¹⁴C-thymidine solution varies between 24% and 71% for polystyrene pads and between 33% and 83% for filter papers, depending on the atmospheric humidity and temperature. For deposition concentrations of 1 μg mL^-1, the mean first wipe ratio using polystyrene pads, which are almost constant vs. humidity and temperature, are 68% and 24% for waxed and unwaxed surfaces, respectively. Under the same conditions, the mean first wipe ratio for filter paper varied with both the surface and the environmental conditions. The total recovery (the ratio of the total activity removed by eight wipes to the total deposited activity) for deposition concentrations of 500 μg mL^-1 tended to increase with humidity for both wiping devices. The total recovery for deposition concentrations of 1 μg mL^-1 is generally low. The first wipe ratio in the lowest case with foamed polystyrene pads in this study was 19%. In that case, the total removable activity is speculated to increase from the sum of eight wipes, if additional wipes are performed. Therefore, the theoretical value of 0.1 recommended by ISO for the removal factor is appropriate when wiping polyvinyl chloride flooring using foamed polystyrene pads.