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PERFORMANCE AUDITING OF A HUMAN AIR POLLUTION EXPOSURE CHAMBER FOR PM2.5
Citation:
RAY, MIKE. PERFORMANCE AUDITING OF A HUMAN AIR POLLUTION EXPOSURE CHAMBER FOR PM2.5. Presented at U.S. EPA's 2006 Conference on Managing Environmental Quality Systems, Austin, TX, April 26 - 27, 2006.
Description:
Databases derived from human health effects research play a vital role in setting environmental standards. An underlying assumption in using these databases for standard setting purposes is that they are of adequate quality. The performance auditing program described provides novel methods for determining data quality for one form of human health effects research, human exposure to PM2.5. PM2.5 is defined as particulate matter (PM) in the ambient air having aerodynamic diameters less than or equal to a nominal 2.5 µm measured by a reference method specified by EPA or measured by methods designated by EPA to be equivalent to the reference method (U.S. EPA, 1997). This paper presents the development and implementation of a performance auditing program for a particulate matter concentrator exposure chamber used by EPA researchers to expose human volunteers to PM2.5 air pollution. Audit procedures for determining the accuracy of critical operating parameters of the chamber are described. The results of audits of the chamber's ability to measure temperature, humidity, and PM2.5 concentration and distribution in the chamber are listed. The utility of the performance auditing program in assisting health effects researchers to determine the adequacy of databases obtained from the PM2.5 concentrator exposure chamber in meeting their research requirements is discussed.