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THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN PERSONAL PM EXPOSURES FOR ELDERLY POPULATIONS AND INDOOR AND OUTDOOR CONCENTRATIONS FOR THREE RETIREMENT CENTER SCENARIOS
Citation:
Rodes, C. E., P. A. Lawless, G F. Evans, V R. Highsmith, L S. Sheldon, R W. Williams, A F. Vette, AND J P. Creason. THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN PERSONAL PM EXPOSURES FOR ELDERLY POPULATIONS AND INDOOR AND OUTDOOR CONCENTRATIONS FOR THREE RETIREMENT CENTER SCENARIOS. Presented at PM 2000 AWMA Conference, Charleston, SC, January 24-28, 2000.
Description:
Personal exposure, indoor and outdoor concentration, "physical factor", and questionnaire data were collected in three retirement center settings, supporting broader PM-health studies of elderly populations. The studies varied geographically and temporally, with populations studied in Baltimore (MD) in the summer of 1998, and Fresno (CA) in the winter and spring of 1999. The sequential nature of the studies and the relatively rapid review of the :mass concentration data after each segment provided the opportunity to modify the experimental designs, including the information collected from activity and baseline questionnaires and physical factor (e.g. HVAC system operation, door and window opening, air exchange rate, etc.) measurements.
Important focuses of all three exposure study designs were: (1) development of relationships of personal exposures with outdoor and indoor microenvironmental concentrations, (2) providing information to understand the differences between measured personal PM exposures, and those estimated based on a simple timeweighted microenvironmental model, and (3) estimating the proportions of personal exposures attributed to aerosols of ambient origin.
This paper will highlight personal exposure data and inter-relationships for the three retirement center settings, and identify the most probable influencing factors. The current limited availability of questionnaire results, and chemical speciation data beyond mass concentration for these studies, preclude assessments estimating personal exposures from models, and apportionments of personal exposure collections attributable to ambient aerosols.
Preliminary data suggest that personal PM exposures for the elderly in retirement centers are only modestly (if at all) higher than outdoor concentrations, as compared to previous general population exposure studies. This was due in part to a smaller number of indoor PM sources (e.g. non-smoking environments, limited cooking), and modestly aggressive indoor PM removal by the HVAC systems. While the penetration of outdoor (ambient) particles through the building shell and through open doors and windows provided the majority of the personal exposure aerosol, personal-to-outdoor ratios varied widely, depending on the exposure scenario.
This work has been funded wholly or in part by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under contract 68-D5-0040 to the Research Triangle Institute. It has been subjected to Agency review and approved for publication. Mention of trade names ox commercial products does not constitute endorsement or recommendation for use.