Industrial Hygiene Exam Practice 2026 – Complete Prep Guide

Gravimetric air monitoring determines how much particulate matter is present by weighing the collection medium (like a filter) before and after sampling to get the total mass of collected particulates. Analytical methods, on the other hand, analyze the collected sample to identify and quantify the specific chemical species or constituents inside it—what the particulates are made of, such as metals, ions, or organic compounds. While some analytical techniques can also report total mass, their primary value is in revealing composition rather than just total weight. So the key distinction is mass measurement versus composition analysis, not “identifying only total particulates.”