ISO-10381-7 Soil quality. Part 7: Guidance on sampling of soil gas

International Organization for Standardization, Geneva; 2005
ISO 10381-7 is one of a group of International Standards to be used in conjunction with each other where necessary. ISO 10381 (all parts) deals with sampling procedures for the various purposes of soil investigation. The stated soil-gas and landfill-gas measurements do not give any quantitative statement of the total quantity of material detected in soil gas or soil. The measurement results can be influenced by, e.g. temperature,
humidity, air pressure, minimum extraction depth, etc. The general terminology used is in accordance with that established in ISO/TC 190 and, more particularly, with the vocabulary given in ISO 11074-2.
In addition to the main components (nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide), soil gas can contain other gases (methane, carbon monoxide, mercaptans, hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, helium, neon, argon, xenon, radon, etc.). It can also contain highly volatile organic compounds or inorganic vapours (mercury) which are of special interest within the framework of investigating soil and groundwater contamination.
Due to the different physical properties and ranges of concentrations of gases in soil and landfills as well as the wide variety of objectives for soil-gas sampling, this part of ISO 10381, after the general clauses 1 to 4, is subdivided into two sections:
a) permanent gases of soil gas and landfill gas (Clause 5);
and b) volatile organic compounds (VOCs) (Clause 6).
Thus it is inevitable that some details are repeated in both clauses in order to make the guidance comprehensive.