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LESSONS LEARNED FROM FOUR EXPOSURE PANEL STUDIES: THE U.S. EPA'S PARTICULATE MATTER STUDIES INVOLVING ELDERLY COHORTS
Citation:
Sheldon, L S., R W. Williams, R B. Zweidinger, G F. Evans, V R. Highsmith, J C. Suggs, C. E. Rodes, AND J P. Creason. LESSONS LEARNED FROM FOUR EXPOSURE PANEL STUDIES: THE U.S. EPA'S PARTICULATE MATTER STUDIES INVOLVING ELDERLY COHORTS. Presented at PM 2000 AWMA Conference, Charleston, SC, January 24-28, 2000.
Description:
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and its collaborators are conducting a series of human exposure panel studies on elderly (65+ years) subpopulations. The primary objectives of these studies are
-To determine personal and indoor exposures to particles and related species;
-To determine the relationship between exposure and indoor, outdoor, and ambient air concentrations;
-To determine the factors that influence these relationships.
Four studies of elderly residents in retirement facilities have been conducted in collaboration with the U.S. EPA's National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory (NHEERL). Studies were performed in Baltimore in January 1997 and July 1998 and in Fresno, California in February and April 1999. Each of the studies included three to four weeks of intensive personal or stationary monitoring of PM-related air pollutants and the collection of questionnaire and time/activity diaries froze study participants. This paper reports on successes of recruiting and retaining elderly subjects for personal and residential monitoring. It also reports on the monitoring designs for each study, their strengths and weaknesses for meeting study objectives, and utility of various approaches studied in the studies.
This work has been funded wholly or in part by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under contract #68-D50040 to the Research Triangle Institute. It has been subjected to Agency review and approved for publication. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation for use.