🌿 Cyclohexanone in workplace air — gas chromatography with mass spectrometry according to the card of the standard, lowest determinable concentration 2 mg/m³, NDS 40 mg/m³, PN-Z-04447

Environment PN-Z-04447

Overview

WHAT THE STANDARD COVERS. Scope from the PKN card, in full (our translation): "This standard gives a method for determining the content of cyclohexanone (CAS No.: 108-94-1) in workplace air using gas chromatography with mass spectrometry. The method is used when checking sanitary and hygienic conditions. The lowest concentration of cyclohexanone that can be determined under the air sampling and determination conditions described in the standard is 2 mg/m3" (without a full stop at the end on the card). The card does not give the sorbent, the air volume and flow, the desorption, the column or the calibration. We did not have the text of the standard (8 pages).

LIMIT VALUES. According to the regulation of the Minister of Family, Labour and Social Policy of 26 March 2026 (Journal of Laws 2026, item 447, annex, item 130), for cyclohexanone [108-94-1] the NDS is 40 mg/m³ and the NDSCh 80 mg/m³; the list gives the "skin" notation for it (absorption through the skin may be as important as by inhalation). The lowest determinable concentration on the card — 2 mg/m³ — is 1/20 of the NDS.

STATUS (state of the cards on 30 September 2026). The card of PN-Z-04447:2014-06 (Polish version) has no "Withdrawn" header — the standard is CURRENT: published 05-06-2014, 8 pages, price group D, Health, Environment and Medicine Sector, KT 159 for Chemical and Dust Hazards in the Working Environment, ICS 13.040.30; a national standard, the card has no "Introduces" or "Replaces" fields. The PKN search for "PN-Z-04447" (30 September 2026) shows only this one edition. An older standard for this substance — PN-Z-04087:1976 "Air purity protection — Determination of cyclohexanone content at workplaces by the colorimetric method" — is WITHDRAWN: the card (Polish version, read on 30 September 2026) gives publication 22-10-1976, "Withdrawal date: 17-10-2011", 3 pages, "Replaces: PN-Z-04087:1965", no "Replaced by" field; the search for "PN-Z-04087" shows only these two editions. The card of PN-Z-04447:2014-06 has no "Replaces" field, so the catalogue does not link the two standards.

HOW MANY LABORATORIES AND IN WHAT FORM (copy of the accreditation-scope database, data loaded up to 17 September 2026, read on 30 September 2026). All notations of number 04447: 12 entries at 11 laboratories — the same number of occurrences in the current PCA documents. The notation "PN-Z-04447:2014-06" at 10 laboratories, AB 1144 — "PN-Z-04447-06:2014". A procedure alongside the standard — AB 300 (IN-59 issue 3 of 18.12.2025), AB 562 (PB_42 edition 5 of 2022-08-16), AB 882 (PB-01 issue 5 of 12.01.2026 with GC-FID and PB-10 issue 1 of 31.08.2022 with GC-MS), AB 1207 (PB-06A issue 7 of 20.01.2025) and AB 1854 (work instruction IR-23 issue 3 of 05.01.2023). The "Laboratories" tab looks for notations that BEGIN with "PN-Z-04447" and will show all 11 laboratories — checked with the tab's query on the production server labcoda.pl on 30 September 2026: 11. Current scopes on the PCA website (read on 30 September 2026, issues from 24.11.2025 to 08.09.2026): all entries are in the issues in force, each of the 21 pairs of range figures from the copy appears in the current document and no entry is suspended.

MATRIX, TECHNIQUE AND RANGES. Workplace air — all 11 laboratories; AB 1207 also ambient and indoor air. Technique: GC-FID — 10 laboratories (AB 300, AB 562, AB 581, AB 622, AB 632, AB 746, AB 882, AB 1144, AB 1642, AB 1854), GC-MS — AB 1207 and the second entry of AB 882. Concentration ranges (10 laboratories; AB 1854 gives only the mass in the sample, (35 – 818) μg): lower limits from 0.062 mg/m³ (AB 746), 0.10 mg/m³ (AB 1642) and 0.17 mg/m³ (AB 1207) to 4.0 mg/m³ (AB 632) and 5 mg/m³ (AB 562); upper limits from 160 mg/m³ (AB 632, AB 746) to 1300 mg/m³ (AB 1207) and 4000 mg/m³ (AB 562). Below 2 mg/m³ — the determinability on the card — 7 of the 10 laboratories start their range (AB 300, AB 622, AB 746, AB 882, AB 1144, AB 1207, AB 1642); AB 581 starts at 2.75, AB 632 at 4.0 and AB 562 at 5 mg/m³.

ALONGSIDE THIS STANDARD. Cyclohexanone in workplace air without this standard is determined by 18 laboratories: according to the withdrawn PN-76/Z-04087 — AB 964 (spectrophotometric method, (3.0 – 300) mg/m³); according to the method from the quarterly "Podstawy i Metody Oceny Środowiska Pracy" 2007, no. 1 (51), pp. 141–147 — AB 647 ((4 – 160) mg/m³) and AB 1226; according to in-house procedures — AB 481 (TSO/PB-08), AB 632 (PB-32 — a separate entry with the same range as the entry with this standard), AB 719 (PA-14), AB 802 (PB-06/09, (0.69 – 160) mg/m³), AB 849 (PB-29, (1.00 – 1440) mg/m³), AB 863 (PB-07), AB 869 (EKOLAB/LB/PB-08), AB 875 (PB 025, cyclohexanone and styrene), AB 886 (PB-02, (0.22 – 500) mg/m³), AB 940 (PB-17 and PB-23), AB 1024 (PB P-05), AB 1037 (QLB-04), AB 1065 (PB-06, GC-MS) and AB 1183 (PB-02, GC-MS) — mostly in one entry together with other solvents; in a flexible scope — AB 934. The entry of AB 1226 is SUSPENDED from 10.06.2026 to 07.12.2026 (bold italics and a footnote in the current PCA document, read on 30 September 2026); the other rows are not suspended. Beware of similar names: in the same entries of many laboratories there are cyclohexane (PN-Z-04151-02, a separate entry in the Knowledge Base) and cyclohexanol.

WHERE A SEEMINGLY CORRECT RESULT IS EASY TO GET. First — the technique: the card describes gas chromatography with mass spectrometry, while 10 laboratories give a flame ionisation detector with this standard; the card does not say whether the standard allows FID — ask which clause the laboratory works to and how it confirmed the determinability with its detector. Second — the lower limit: 7 laboratories start their range below the 2 mg/m³ on the card (the lowest at 0.062 mg/m³), so a result from the lower part of the range rests on the laboratory's validation, not on the standard itself; AB 562 starts at 5 mg/m³, i.e. above 1/10 of the NDS (4 mg/m³). Third — the "skin" notation: measuring the concentration in air does not cover absorption through the skin, which according to the list may be equally important. Fourth — similar names: cyclohexanone (NDS 40 mg/m³), cyclohexanol (NDS 10 mg/m³) and 2-methylcyclohexanone (NDS 50 mg/m³) have separate entries in the list — what counts in the report is the full name and the CAS number [108-94-1].

WHAT WE DO NOT GIVE. We did not have the text of the standard — PKN sells it (8 pages). We do not give the sorbent and its amount, the air volume and flow, the desorption solution, the column and separation conditions, the ions used for quantification, the calibration, the formula or the precision.

Method principle

According to the PKN card, cyclohexanone from workplace air is determined by gas chromatography with mass spectrometry; the lowest determinable concentration under the conditions of the standard is 2 mg/m³. We DO NOT GIVE the sampling and sample preparation or the separation conditions — we did not have the text of the standard.

Applications

• Cyclohexanone in workplace air — in the scopes of 11 laboratories (NDS 40 mg/m³, NDSCh 80 mg/m³, "skin" notation)
• Ambient and indoor air — AB 1207 (GC-MS)

Key parameters

Standard

Standard number

PN-Z-04447:2014-06 (wersja polska)

Title (PL)

Ochrona czystości powietrza — Oznaczanie cykloheksanonu na stanowiskach pracy metodą chromatografii gazowej

Title (EN)

Air purity protection — Determination of cyclohexanone at workplaces by gas chromatography

Step-by-step procedure

1. Status of the document

   PKN card: PN-Z-04447:2014-06 current (state of the card on 30 September 2026).

2. Sampling

   Air from the workplace; we DO NOT GIVE the sorbent, volume and flow.

3. Sample preparation

   We DO NOT GIVE it — the card does not describe the desorption.

4. Analysis

   Gas chromatography with mass spectrometry according to the card; lowest determinable concentration 2 mg/m³.

5. Result

   Concentration in mg/m³ for comparison with the NDS of 40 mg/m³ and the NDSCh of 80 mg/m³ ("skin" notation); we DO NOT GIVE the formula.

Required equipment and apparatus

Reagents, media and consumables

Health and safety (OHS)

• Cyclohexanone has the "skin" notation in the NDS list — protective gloves and work under a fume hood when handling the reference substance and solutions
• TECHNICAL NOTE: the card of the standard speaks of mass spectrometry, while most laboratories give a flame ionisation detector with it — check the technique and the limit of quantification in the report

Frequently asked questions