Personal Exposure to BC, PM and NO2 in the Paris Region Measured by Portable Sensors Worn by Volunteers

Portable sensors have emerged as a promising solution for personal exposure (PE) measurement. For the first time in Île-de-France, PE to black carbon (BC), particulate matter (PM), and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) was quantified based on three field campaigns involving 37 volunteers from the general public wearing the sensors all day long for a week. This successful deployment demonstrated its ability to quantify PE on a large scale, in various environments (from dense urban to suburban, indoor and outdoor) and in all seasons. The impact of the visited environments was investigated. The proximity to road traffic (for BC and NO2), as well as cooking activities and tobacco smoke (for PM), made significant contributions to total exposure (up to 34%, 26%, and 44%, respectively), even though the time spent in these environments was short. Finally, even if ambient outdoor levels played a role in PE, the prominent impact of the different environments suggests that traditional ambient monitoring stations is not a proper surrogate for PE quantification.

Personal Exposure to Fine Particles (PM2.5) in Northwest Africa: Case of the Urban City of Bamako in Mali

Personal exposure to particulate matter (PM) from anthropogenic activities is a major concern in African countries, including Mali. However, knowledge of particulates is scant. This study was undertaken to characterize personal exposure to PM2.5 microns or less in diameter (PM2.5) in the city of Bamako in Mali. The exposure to PM2.5, through daily activities was observed from September 2020 to February 2021. Participants wore palm-sized optical PM2.5 sensors on their chest during their daily activities. The exposure levels in four different groups of residents were investigated in relation to their daily activities. The variation in PM2.5 concentration was measured during different activities in different microenvironments, and the main sources of exposure were identified. The highest average 10 min concentrations were observed at home and in bedrooms, while the participants were using specific products typically used in Africa, Asia, and South America that included insecticides (IST; 999 µg/m3) and incense (ICS; 145 µg/m3), followed by traffic (216 µg/m3) and cooking (150 µg/m3). The lowest average 10 min concentrations were also observed in the same microenvironment lacking IST or ICS (≤14 µg/m3). With no use of specific products, office workers and students were the least exposed, and drivers and cooks were the most exposed. The concentrations are up to 7.5 and 3 times higher than the World Health Organization’s yearly and daily recommended exposure levels, respectively, indicating the need to promptly elaborate and apply effective mitigation strategies to improve air quality and protect public health. This study highlights the importance of indoor air pollution sources related to culture and confirms previous studies on urban outdoor air pollution sources, especially in developing countries. The findings could be applied to cities other than Bamako, as similar practices and lifestyles are common in different cultures.

Inter- and Intra-Individual Variability of Personal Health Risk of Combined Particle and Gaseous Pollutants across Selected Urban Microenvironments

Exposure surrogates, such as air quality measured at a fixed-site monitor (FSM) or residence, are typically used for health estimates. However, people spend various amounts of time in different microenvironments, including the home, office, outdoors and in transit, where they are exposed to different magnitudes of particle and gaseous air pollutants. Health risks caused by air pollution exposure differ among individuals due to differences in activity, microenvironmental concentration, as well as the toxicity of pollutants. We evaluated individual and combined added health risks (AR) of exposure to PM2.5, NO2, and O3 for 21 participants in their daily life based on real-world personal exposure measurements. Exposure errors from using surrogates were quantified. Inter- and intra-individual variability in health risks and key contributors in variations were investigated using linear mixed-effects models and correlation analysis, respectively. Substantial errors were found between personal exposure concentrations and ambient concentrations when using air quality measurements at either FSM or the residence location. The mean exposure errors based on the measurements taken at either the FSM or residence as exposure surrogates was higher for NO2 than PM2.5, because of the larger spatial variability in NO2 concentrations in urban areas. The daily time-integrated AR for the combined PM2.5, NO2, and O3 (TIARcombine) ranged by a factor of 2.5 among participants and by a factor up to 2.5 for a given person across measured days. Inter- and intra-individual variability in TIARcombine is almost equally important. Several factors were identified to be significantly correlated with daily TIARcombine, with the top five factors, including PM2.5, NO2 and O3 concentrations at ‘home indoor’, O3 concentrations at ‘office indoor’ and ambient PM2.5 concentrations. The results on the contributors of variability in the daily TIARcombine could help in targeting interventions to reduce daily health damage related to air pollutants.

Establishing A Sustainable Low-Cost Air Quality Monitoring Setup: A Survey of the State-of-the-Art

Low-cost sensors (LCS) are becoming popular for air quality monitoring (AQM). They promise high spatial and temporal resolutions at low-cost. In addition, citizen science applications such as personal exposure monitoring can be implemented effortlessly. However, the reliability of the data is questionable due to various error sources involved in the LCS measurement. Furthermore, sensor performance drift over time is another issue. Hence, the adoption of LCS by regulatory agencies is still evolving. Several studies have been conducted to improve the performance of low-cost sensors. This article summarizes the existing studies on the state-of-the-art of LCS for AQM. We conceptualize a step by step procedure to establish a sustainable AQM setup with LCS that can produce reliable data. The selection of sensors, calibration and evaluation, hardware setup, evaluation metrics and inferences, and end user-specific applications are various stages in the LCS-based AQM setup we propose. We present a critical analysis at every step of the AQM setup to obtain reliable data from the low-cost measurement. Finally, we conclude this study with future scope to improve the availability of air quality data.

Risk assessment of workers exposed to respirable crystalline silica in silica crushing units in Azandarian Industrial Zone, Hamadan, Iran

Introduction: Azandarian industrial zone with about 40 active silica crushing units is one of the largest industrial area in Hamadan province, Iran. Materials and methods: In this study, the personal exposure of workers in the activated silica crushing units was measured. Assessing the risk of mortality due to exposure to Respirable Crystalline Silica (RCS) in the workplace was then estimated through measuring the personnel exposure in accordance with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) 7601 method. Moreover, the mortality rate of lung cancer and risk of mortality due to exposure to RCS were estimated. Results: Based on the results, the average exposure of employees to RCS in the crushing units was in the range of 1.70 -0.14 mg/m3. As observed, the lowest and highest exposure was obtained for the admission unit and sandstone, respectively. In general, it can be inferred that in all studied occupation positions, the exposure level was higher than the recommended standard (0.25 mg/m3). As can be seen, the carcinogenic risk level for the exposed workers was in the range 2-26/1000. The results of risk assessment showed that the highest risk level was related to the stamping machine operator unit and the lowest was related to the administrative unit. Conclusion: Therefore, the workers working in high-risk units such as stamping machine operator and stone separation operator are more likely to suffer from adverse health complications such as silicosis, lung cancer and other respiratory complications.

Talking about firearm injury prevention with patients: a survey of medical residents

Background Firearm injury and death are significant public health problems in the U.S. and physicians are uniquely situated to help prevent them. However, there is little formal training in medical education on identifying risk for firearm injury and discussing safe firearm practices with patients. This study assesses prior education, barriers to counseling, and needs for improved training on firearm safety counseling in medical education to inform the development of future education on clinical strategies for firearm injury prevention. Method A 2018 survey administered to 218 residents and fellows at a large, academic medical center asked about medical training on firearm injury prevention, frequency of asking patients about firearm access, and perceived barriers. Results The most common barriers cited were not knowing what to do with patients’ answers about access to firearms (72.1%), not having enough time (66.2%), not feeling comfortable identifying patients at-risk for firearm injury (49.2%), and not knowing how to ask patients about firearm access (48.6%). Prior education on firearm injury prevention was more strongly associated with asking than was personal exposure to firearms: 51.5% of respondents who had prior medical education reported asking compared with who had not received such education (31.8%, p=0.004). More than 90% of respondents were interested in further education about interventions, what questions to ask, and legal mechanisms to separate dangerous people from their firearms. Conclusions Education on assessing risk for firearm-related harm and, when indicated, counseling on safe firearm practices may increase the likelihood clinicians practice this behavior, though additional barriers exist.

Pregnant Women’s Exposure to Household Air Pollution in Rural Bangladesh: A Feasibility Study for Poriborton: The CHANge Trial

The use of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) for cooking is a strategy to reduce household air pollution (HAP) exposure and improve health. We conducted this feasibility study to evaluate personal exposure measurement methods to representatively assess reductions in HAP exposure. We enrolled 30 pregnant women to wear a MicroPEM for 24 h to assess their HAP exposure when cooking with a traditional stove (baseline) and with an LPG stove (intervention). The women wore the MicroPEM an average of 77% and 69% of the time during the baseline and intervention phases, respectively. Mean gravimetric PM2.5 mass and black carbon concentrations were comparable during baseline and intervention. Temporal analysis of the MicroPEM nephelometer data identified high PM2.5 concentrations in the afternoon, late evening, and overnight during the intervention phase. Likely seasonal sources present during the intervention phase were emissions from brick kiln and rice parboiling facilities, and evening kerosene lamp and mosquito coil use. Mean background adjusted PM2.5 concentrations during cooking were lower during intervention at 71 μg/m3, versus 105 μg/m3 during baseline. Representative real-time personal PM2.5 concentration measurements supplemented with ambient PM2.5 measures and surveys will be a valuable tool to disentangle external sources of PM2.5, other indoor HAP sources, and fuel-sparing behaviors when assessing the HAP reduction due to intervention with LPG stoves.

Health risks of adults in Hong Kong related to inhalation of particle-bound heavy metal(loid)s

Heterogeneity between ambient and personal exposure to heavy metals has been documented. However, few studies have investigated potential health risks posed by inhalational exposure to airborne heavy metal(loid)s at the individual level. A total of 404 personal fine particles (PM2.5) samples were collected from 61 adult residents (aged 18–63 years) in Hong Kong during 2014–2015. Heavy metal(loid)s were analyzed using energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence. Among the analyzed heavy metal(loid)s, zinc (Zn) was the most abundant component in personal PM2.5, followed by lead (Pb), copper (Cu), and vanadium (V); cobalt (Co) and cadmium (Cd) were not detectable. Health risks of personal exposure to heavy metal(loid)s via inhalation were assessed for adults, including non-cancer risks that were characterized by hazard quotient (HQ) and hazard index (HI). The results indicated that non-cancer risks of heavy metal(loid)s were attributable to Cu, with a 95th HQ value > 1. Arsenic (As) and hexavalent chromium [Cr (VI)] were also significant contributors to inhalation cancer risks (> 1 × 10−6) for the adult participants. Finally, we employed a Monte Carlo simulation to evaluate the uncertainty associated with health risk assessment. The mean and median upper-bound lifetime cancer risk associated with inhalation exposure to carcinogenic heavy metal(loid)s exceeded the acceptable level (1 × 10−6) for adults. Traffic emission (including non-tailpipe exhaust), shipping emission, and regional pollution were significant sources of heavy metals. These findings suggest that emission controls targeting local vehicles and vessels should be given priority in Hong Kong.