Claire Meddings

Relationship of personal exposure to volatile organic compounds to home, work and fixed site outdoor concentrations

Personal exposures of 100 adult non-smokers living in the UK, as well as home and workplace microenvironment concentrations of 15 volatile organic compounds were investigated. The strength of the association between personal exposure and indoor home and workplace concentrations as well as with central site ambient air concentrations in medium to low pollution areas was assessed. Home microenvironment concentrations were strongly associated with personal exposures indicating that the home is the driving factor determining personal exposures to VOCs, explaining between 11 and 75% of the total variability. Workplace and central site ambient concentrations were less correlated with the corresponding personal concentrations, explaining up to 11-22% of the variability only at the low exposure end of the concentration range (e.g. benzene concentrations <2.5 μg m(-3)). One of the reasons for the discrepancies between personal exposures and central site data was that the latter does not account for exposure due to personal activities (e.g. commuting, painting). A moderate effect of season on the strength of the association between personal exposure and ambient concentrations was found. This needs to be taken into account when using fixed site measurements to infer exposures.

Lung function and indicators of exposure to indoor and outdoor particulate matter among asthma and COPD patients

Objectives: Misclassification of exposure related to the use of central sites may be larger for ultrafine particles than for particulate matter ⩽2.5 μm and ⩽10 μm (PM2.5 and PM10) and may result in underestimation of health effects. This paper describes the relative strength of the association between outdoor and indoor exposure to ultrafine particles, PM2.5 and PM10 and lung function. Methods: In four European cities (Helsinki, Athens, Amsterdam and Birmingham), lung function (forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) and peak expiratory flow (PEF)) was measured three times a day for 1 week in 135 patients with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), covering study periods of >1 year. Daily concentrations of particle number, PM2.5 and PM10 were measured at a central site in each city and both inside and outside the subjects’ homes. Results: Daily average particle number concentrations ranged between 2100 and 66 100 particles/cm3. We found no association between 24 h average particle number or particle mass concentrations and FVC, FEV1 and PEF. Substituting home outdoor or home indoor concentrations of particulate air pollution instead of the central site measurements did not change the observed associations. Analyses restricted to asthmatics also showed no associations. Conclusions: No consistent associations between lung function and 24 h average particle number or particle mass concentrations were found in panels of patients with mild to moderate COPD or asthma. More detailed exposure assessment did not change the observed associations. The lack of association could be due to the high prevalence of medication use, limited ability to assess lagged effects over several days or absence of an effect.

Dependence of home outdoor particulate mass and number concentrations on residential and traffic features in urban areas

Abstract The associations between residential outdoor and ambient particle mass, fine particle absorbance, particle number (PN) concentrations, and residential and traffic determinants were investigated in four European urban areas (Helsinki, Athens, Amsterdam, and Birmingham). A total of 152 nonsmoking participants with respiratory diseases, not exposed to occupational pollution, were included in the study, which comprised a 7-day intensive exposure monitoring period of both indoor and home outdoor particle mass and number concentrations. The same pollutants were also continuously measured at ambient fixed sites centrally located to the studied areas (fixed ambient sites). Relationships between concentrations measured directly outside the homes (residential outdoor) and at the fixed ambient sites were pollutant-specific, with substantial variations among the urban areas. Differences were more pronounced for coarse particles due to resuspension of road dust and PN, which is strongly related to traffic emissions. Less significant outdoor-to-fixed variation for particle mass was observed for Amsterdam and Birmingham, predominantly due to regional secondary aerosol. On the contrary, a strong spatial variation was observed for Athens and to a lesser extent for Helsinki. This was attributed to the overwhelming and time-varied inputs from traffic and other local sources. The location of the residence and traffic volume and distance to street and traffic light were important determinants of residential outdoor particle concentrations. On average, particle mass levels in suburban areas were less than 30% of those measured for residences located in the city center. Residences located less than 10 m from a street experienced 133% higher PN concentrations than residences located further away. Overall, the findings of this multi-city study, indicated that (1) spatial variation was larger for PN than for fine particulate matter (PM) mass and varied between the cities, (2) vehicular emissions in the residential street and location in the center of the city were significant predictors of spatial variation, and (3) the impact of traffic and location in the city was much larger for PN than for fine particle mass.

Determination of atmospheric particulate-phase polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from low volume air samples

This study has tested and optimized different filter media and pre-conditioning methods, extraction methodologies, cleaning techniques and solvents, concentration procedures and GC-MS parameters in order to establish the best methodology to sample and analyze particle-bound PAH collected in low volume samples (1.4 m3). The procedure developed combines the use of quartz fiber filters pre-conditioned at 400 °C for 48 h with a simple extraction procedure and optimized GC-MS parameters. The average method detection limits ranged from 4 to 15 pg m−3 for the 4–7 ring PAHs, precision (RSD) ranged from 0.3 to 9.7% and accuracy ranged from −6 to 25%. This method was validated with the extraction and analysis of the Standard Reference Material 1649a and was tested successfully on samples collected in outdoor microenvironments proving suitable for determination of particle-bound PAH concentrations without interferences in low volume samples.

Model development and validation of personal exposure to volatile organic compound concentrations.

Background Direct measurement of exposure to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) via personal monitoring is the most accurate exposure assessment method available. However, its wide-scale application to evaluating exposures at the population level is prohibitive in terms of both cost and time. Consequently, indirect measurements via a combination of microenvironment concentrations and personal activity diaries represent a potentially useful alternative. Objective The aim of this study was to optimize a model of personal exposures (PEs) based on microenvironment concentrations and time/activity diaries and to compare modeled with measured exposures in an independent data set. Materials VOC PEs and a range of microenvironment concentrations were collected with active samplers and sorbent tubes. Data were supplemented with information collected through questionnaires. Seven models were tested to predict PE to VOCs in 75% (n = 370) of the measured PE data set, whereas the other 25% (n = 120) was used for validation purposes. Results The best model able to predict PE with independence of measurements was based upon stratified microenvironment concentrations, lifestyle factors, and individual-level activities. The proposed model accounts for 40–85% of the variance for individual VOCs and was validated for almost all VOCs, showing normalized mean bias and mean fractional bias below 25% and predicting 60% of the values within a factor of 2. Conclusions The models proposed identify the most important non-weather-related variables for VOC exposures; highlight the effect of personal activities, use of solvents, and exposure to environmental tobacco smoke on PE levels; and may assist in the development of specific models for other locations.

Association between exhaled breath condensate nitrate + nitrite levels with ambient coarse particle exposure in subjects with airways disease

Objectives Studies of individual inflammatory responses to exposure to air pollution are few but are important in defining the most sensitive markers in better understanding pathophysiological pathways in the lung. The goal of this study was to assess whether exposure to airborne particles is associated with oxidative stress in an epidemiological setting. Methods The authors assessed exposure to particulate matter air pollution in four European cities in relation to levels of nitrite plus nitrate (NOx) in exhaled breath condensate (EBC) measurements in 133 subjects with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease using an EBC capture method developed for field use. In each subject, three measurements were collected. Exposure measurements included particles smaller than 10 μm (PM10), smaller than 2.5 μm (PM2.5) and particle number counts at a central site, outdoors near the subjects home and indoors. Results There were positive and significant relationships between EBC NOx and coarse particles at the central sampling sites (increase of 20.4% (95% CI 6.1% to 36.6%) per 10 μg/m3 increase of coarse particles of the previous day) but not between EBC NOx and other particle measures. Associations tended to be stronger in subjects not taking steroid medication. Conclusions An association was found between exposure to ambient coarse particles at central sites and EBC NOx, a marker of oxidative stress. The lack of association between PM measures more indicative of personal exposures (particularly indoor exposure) means interpretation should be cautious. However, EBC NOx may prove to be a marker of PM-induced oxidative stress in epidemiological studies.

Comparative Modeling Approaches for Personal Exposure to Particle-Associated PAH

Several models for simulation of personal exposure (PE) to particle-associated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) have been developed and tested. The modeling approaches include linear regression models (Model 1), time activity weighted models (Models 2 and 3), a hybrid model (Model 4), a univariate linear model (Model 5), and machine learning technique models (Model 6 and 7). The hybrid model (Model 4), which utilizes microenvironment data derived from time-activity diaries (TAD) with the implementation of add-on variables to account for external factors that might affect PE, proved to be the best regression model (R(2) for B(a)P = 0.346, p < 0.01; N = 68). This model was compared with results from two machine learning techniques, namely decision trees (Model 6) and neural networks (Model 7), which represent an innovative approach to PE modeling. The neural network model was promising in giving higher correlation coefficient results for all PAH (R(2) for B(a)P = 0.567, p < 0.01; N = 68) and good performance with the smaller test data set (R(2) for B(a)P = 0.640, p < 0.01; N = 23). Decision tree accuracies (Model 6) which assess how precisely the algorithm can determine the correct classification of a PE concentration range indicate good performance, but this is not comparable to the other models through R(2) values. Using neural networks (Model 7) showed significant improvements over the performance of hybrid Model 4 and the univariate general linear Model 5 for test samples (not used in developing the models). The worst performance was given by linear regression Models 1 to 3 based solely on home and workplace concentrations and time-activity data.