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THE RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK PARTICULATE MATTER PANEL STUDY: PM MASS CONCENTRATION RELATIONSHIPS
Citation:
Williams, R W., J C. Suggs, A W. Rea, K W. Leovic, A F. Vette, C Croghan, L S. Sheldon, C. Rodes, J. Thornburg, A. Ejire, M. Herbst, AND W. Sanders Jr. THE RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK PARTICULATE MATTER PANEL STUDY: PM MASS CONCENTRATION RELATIONSHIPS. ATMOSPHERIC ENVIRONMENT 37(38):5349-5363, (2003).
Impact/Purpose:
The primary study objectives are:
1.To quantify personal exposures and indoor air concentrations for PM/gases for potentially sensitive individuals (cross sectional, inter- and intrapersonal).
2.To describe (magnitude and variability) the relationships between personal exposure, and indoor, outdoor and ambient air concentrations for PM/gases for different sensitive cohorts. These cohorts represent subjects of opportunity and relationships established will not be used to extrapolate to the general population.
3.To examine the inter- and intrapersonal variability in the relationship between personal exposures, and indoor, outdoor, and ambient air concentrations for PM/gases for sensitive individuals.
4.To identify and model the factors that contribute to the inter- and intrapersonal variability in the relationships between personal exposures and indoor, outdoor, and ambient air concentrations for PM/gases.
5.To determine the contribution of ambient concentrations to indoor air/personal exposures for PM/gases.
6.To examine the effects of air shed (location, season), population demographics, and residential setting (apartment vs stand-alone homes) on the relationship between personal exposure and indoor, outdoor, and ambient air concentrations for PM/gases.
Description:
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has recently performed the Research Triangle Park Particulate Matter Panel Study. This was a one-year investigation of PM and related co-pollutants involving participants living within the RTP area of North Carolina. Primary goals were to characterize the relationships between ambient and residential PM measures to those obtained from personal exposure monitoring and estimate ambient source contributions to personal and indoor mass concentrations. A total of 38 participants living in 37 homes were involved in personal, residential indoor, residential outdoor and ambient PM2.5 exposure monitoring. Participating were 30 nonsmoking hypertensive African-Americans living in a low-moderate SES neighborhood (SE Raleigh, NC) and a cohort of eight individuals having implanted cardiac defibrillators (Chapel Hill, NC). Residential and ambient monitoring of PM10 and PM10.2.5 (coarse by differential) was also performed. The volunteers were monitored for seven consecutive days during each of four seasons (summer 2000, fall 2000, winter 2001, spring 2001). Individual PM2.5 personal exposure concentrations ranged from 4 to 218 ug/m3 during the study. The highest personal exposures were determined to be the result of passive environmental tobacco exposures. Subsequently, ~ 7% of the total number of personal exposure trials were excluded to minimize this pollutant's affect upon the overall analysis. Results indicated that a pooled dataset (seasons, cohorts, residences, participants) was appropriate for investigation of the basic mass concentration relationships. Daily personal PM2.5 mass concentrations were typically higher than their associated residential or ambient measurements (mean personal = 23.0, indoor = 19.1, outdoor = 19.3, ambient = 19.2 ug m-3). Mean personal PM 2.5, exposures were observed to be only moderately correlated to ambient PM2.5 concentrations (r = 0.39).
The US Environmental Protection Agency through its Office of Research and Development funded and conducted the research described here under contract #68-D-99-012 to the Research Triangle Institute International and to Shaw University under collaborative agreement #CR-828186. It has been subjected to Agency review and approved for publication. Mention of trade names or commercial product does not constitute endorsement or recommendation for use.