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ANALYSIS OF HUMAN ACTIVITY DATA FOR USE IN MODELING ENVIRONMENTAL EXPOSURES
Citation:
Burke, J M., T R. McCurdy, A H. Ozkaynak, AND L S. Sheldon. ANALYSIS OF HUMAN ACTIVITY DATA FOR USE IN MODELING ENVIRONMENTAL EXPOSURES. Presented at American Association of Aerosol Research, Tacoma, WA, October 11-15, 1999.
Description:
Human activity data are a critical part of exposure models being developed by the US EPA's National Exposure Research Laboratory (NERL). An analysis of human activity data within NERL's Consolidated Human Activity Database (CHAD) was performed in two areas relevant to exposure modeling.
First, activity data in CHAD were analyzed to investigate the microenvironment and activity data currently available for children. Activity data from CHAD for approx. 2600 children less than 12 years old were incorporated in the analysis (approx. 200 children for each year of age). The amount of time spent by children doing certain activities in various microenvironments (i.e. playing games in living room) was compared to determine appropriate age groupings for modeling children's exposure to pesticides. This analysis identified significant data gaps in the CHAD activity data for children, including specific activities relevant to dermal exposure (i.e. contact with surfaces). Also, data on time spent in a childcare facility was limited to one California study.
Second, day-to-day longitudinal variability in activity patterns was investigated using multi-day diaries available in CHAD for approximately 850 people. The auto-correlation between the percent of day spent in various activities and microenvironments across three consecutive diary days was found to be dependent on age, type of day (weekday/weekend) and month (March/August). Longitudinal variability in activity patterns has implications for modeling annual average exposures to many pollutants, such as ambient particulate matter.
This is a proposed abstract and does not necessarily reflect U.S. EPA policy.