Children integrated exposure to chemical compounds in particulate matter
Title: Children integrated exposure to chemical compounds in particulate matter
Summary: Faria T., Martins V., Canha N., Diapouli E., Manousakas M., Eleftheriadis K., Almeida S.M.
Abstract:
Particulate matter (PM) in air is a concern due to the adverse effects it causes on human health at low levels of exposure and there is no evidence of a threshold below which no adverse health effects occur. There is an improvement with respect to emission control strategies of anthropogenic emissions, nevertheless, if the quantitative result of these strategies in health effects for specific toxic particle compounds is no well-known with respect to each one of the emission sources, the definition of the effective strategies can be jeopardized. Since humans spend more than 85% of their time indoors, this work assessed the integrated exposure to PM and studied the importance of the indoor sources. This work was developed in the framework of the LIFE Index-Air project (www.lifeindexair.net) and aims to quantify the children daily exposure and dose to PM chemical compounds.
PM was sampled in 40 houses, 5 schools and respective outdoor sites during 5 days each. Leckel MVS6 samplers were used to collect PM2.5 and PM2.5-10 that were characterized by X-Ray Fluorescence for the measurement of major and trace elements and by the Thermo-Optical Transmittance method for the determination of the organic and elemental carbon. The daily exposure for each child was assessed by integrating the results from the time-activity pattern with the concentrations measured in the different microenvironments (MEs).
Results showed that children, during the week, spent an average 56% at home, 27% in classrooms and 5% in commuting, indicating that the risk assessment should focus on indoor MEs. The daily exposure depended on the time spent in each ME and the concentrations in that ME. The measurements in all ME were always performed during the occupancy time, since the inclusion of no occupancy time underestimates the concentration relevant for personal exposure assessment. Home and school were the MEs where the children spent more time and together contributed to more than 70% to the daily exposure of each PM chemical compound (except for Ba and EC in PM2.5 and Ba and Cl in PM10 where the outdoor contribution was more relevant). While most hours were spent in homes, the schools displayed the highest contributions for the exposure to the mineral elements (Al, Ca, Si, Sr, and Ti) that can enter in classrooms through the windows or be released from children’s shoes especially after playing outside.
This work was supported by LIFE Index-Air project (LIFE15 ENV/PT/000674). Authors gratefully acknowledge the FCT support through the UID/Multi/04349/2013 project and the PhD grant SFRH/BD/129149/2017. This work reflects only the authors’ view and EASME is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.
Type of publication: Oral Abstract of ICEH 2019 (Lisbon, Portugal, 25-27 September)
How to cite: Faria T., Martins V., Canha N., Diapouli E., Manousakas M., Eleftheriadis K., Almeida S.M. (2019) Children integrated exposure to chemical compounds in particulate matter. ICEH 2019 – 4th International Congress on Environmental Health, Lisbon, Portugal, 25-27 September.
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