Dataset Information

Inter- and Intra-Individual Variability of Personal Health Risk of Combined Particle and Gaseous Pollutants across Selected Urban Microenvironments.

ABSTRACT: Exposure surrogates, such as air quality measured at a fixed-site monitor (FSM) or residence, are typically used for health estimates. However, people spend various amounts of time in different microenvironments, including the home, office, outdoors and in transit, where they are exposed to different magnitudes of particle and gaseous air pollutants. Health risks caused by air pollution exposure differ among individuals due to differences in activity, microenvironmental concentration, as well as the toxicity of pollutants. We evaluated individual and combined added health risks (AR) of exposure to PM_2.5, NO_2, and O₃ for 21 participants in their daily life based on real-world personal exposure measurements. Exposure errors from using surrogates were quantified. Inter- and intra-individual variability in health risks and key contributors in variations were investigated using linear mixed-effects models and correlation analysis, respectively. Substantial errors were found between personal exposure concentrations and ambient concentrations when using air quality measurements at either FSM or the residence location. The mean exposure errors based on the measurements taken at either the FSM or residence as exposure surrogates was higher for NO₂ than PM_2.5, because of the larger spatial variability in NO₂ concentrations in urban areas. The daily time-integrated AR for the combined PM_2.5, NO₂, and O₃ (TIAR_combine) ranged by a factor of 2.5 among participants and by a factor up to 2.5 for a given person across measured days. Inter- and intra-individual variability in TIAR_combine is almost equally important. Several factors were identified to be significantly correlated with daily TIAR_combine, with the top five factors, including PM_2.5, NO₂ and O₃ concentrations at 'home indoor', O₃ concentrations at 'office indoor' and ambient PM_2.5 concentrations. The results on the contributors of variability in the daily TIAR_combine could help in targeting interventions to reduce daily health damage related to air pollutants.

SUBMITTER: Hossain S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8744794 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Similar Datasets

Project description:Air pollution is one of the greatest environmental risks to health, causing millions of deaths and deleterious health effects worldwide, especially in urban areas where citizens are exposed to high ambient levels of pollutants, also influencing indoor air quality (IAQ). Many sources of indoor air are fairly obvious and well known, but the contribution of outside sources to indoor air still leads to significant uncertainties, in particular the influence that environmental variables have on outdoor/indoor pollutant exchange mechanisms. This is a critical aspect to consider in IAQ studies. In this respect, an experimental study was performed at a public site such as a university classroom during a non-academic period in Madrid city. This includes two field campaigns, in summer (2021) and winter (2020), where instruments for measuring gases and particle air pollutants simultaneously measured outdoor and indoor real-time concentrations. This study aimed to investigate the dynamic variations in the indoor/outdoor (I/O) ratios in terms of ambient outdoor conditions (meteorology, turbulence and air quality) and indoor features (human presence or natural ventilation). The results show that the I/O ratio is pollutant-dependent. In this sense, the infiltration capacity is higher for gaseous compounds, and in the case of particles, it depends on the particle size, with a higher infiltration capacity for smaller particles (<PM2.5). Additionally, under specific situations of high atmospheric stability, the concentrations of gases derived from traffic tend to accumulate in the room, keeping the background concentrations. These concentrations decreased when room ventilation was produced simultaneously with well-ventilated (high wind speed) external conditions. This suggests that the meteorology and turbulence parameters played a key role in influencing indoor ambient pollution conditions by enhancing the dispersion or accumulation of pollutants. The obtained results highlight the high number of variables involved in the outdoor/indoor exchange of air pollutants and, consequently, how complex its study is. Thus, the knowledge of these factors is critical for understanding the behavior of indoor pollutants and controlling human exposure in indoor environments.

Dataset Information

Inter- and Intra-Individual Variability of Personal Health Risk of Combined Particle and Gaseous Pollutants across Selected Urban Microenvironments.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets